Jaelynn Scott won Washington’s 37th Legislative District in the Nov. 3 election, and The Associated Press called the race for her on Wednesday, KNKX reported. “It’s pretty surreal,” Scott told The 19th on election night.
Trans candidates in the 2026 midterms also topped unofficial returns for statehouse seats in Michigan, Wisconsin and Alabama, and Rep. Sarah McBride won a second term in Congress. “I think it was because of what’s happening to us, and really maybe even a bit of fear about what might happen to me and my community, that inspired me to run,” Scott said. “I never thought we would get this far.”
Jaelynn Scott Wins Washington’s 37th District Seat
Scott is executive director of Lavender Rights Project, a Black- and trans-led civil rights nonprofit in Seattle, The 19th reported. “As a Black trans woman, I’ve faced many of the same challenges others in QT2BIPOC and marginalized communities face,” she writes on her campaign site. She introduced herself on the Trans Heartbeat podcast by saying, “I use she/her pronouns.”
(Washington voters also passed Initiative 638, which requires sex verification for girls’ school sports, Gayety reported.)
Trans Candidates in the 2026 Midterms Top Michigan, Wisconsin Returns
“We didn’t vote for history, but we made it last night,” Joanna Whaley said in a social media video after topping Republican Ron Kokinda 62% to 37% in unofficial Wayne County returns for Michigan’s House District 2, Fox 2 Detroit reported. Her own podcast, from Whaley Media, says she served as an evangelical pastor and “later came out as a transgender woman.”
Whaley told WXYZ that police are looking into a threat against her. “Unfortunately, two weeks before the election, we had a security incident that’s currently being investigated by the Lincoln Park Police Department and is being investigated as a threat of violence against me,” she said.
“I think our community and the state in general has finally said we reject culture war crap,” Whaley told the Michigan Advance.
Madison City Council member Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford led Republican Nina Chat 92% to 7% in unofficial Dane County returns for Wisconsin’s 76th Assembly District, a seat Democrat Francesca Hong gave up to run for governor, the Cap Times reported. “I think about when I was a kid, had I seen people that were trans doing things like being in government and being on television and living life, I would have been able to transition a lot sooner,” she said at an election night party.
“We’re just people who want to have life, liberty, and be able to pursue our happiness,” Martinez-Rutherford said.
Allison Montgomery Leads Alabama House District 25 in Unofficial Returns
Allison Montgomery led Republican Rep. Phillip Rigsby 53% to 47% in House District 25, according to unofficial secretary of state returns posted by Alabama Political Reporter. “When I go knock on folks’ doors and talk to them about what I stand for, neither of us care that I’m transgender,” Montgomery told Alabama Political Reporter in October.
“I’m going to work especially hard for those who hate me, because they deserve a better Alabama as much as anyone,” she said in her election night statement.
Bentley Hudgins Leads Georgia House District 90 Returns
In Georgia, Bentley Hudgins, a Democrat and former Georgia state director for the Human Rights Campaign, led Republican Samantha Boston 92% to 8% in House District 90, according to unofficial returns from the Georgia secretary of state’s office. When an X user asked Thursday which bathroom Hudgins would use at the Capitol, Hudgins replied: “I’m trying to lower your bills and you guys are asking me where I’m going to pee.”
“I’m not running to be a first of anything. I’m running to make sure that no one is the last,” Hudgins told WRDW in June. “Southern queers like me don’t back down in the face of authoritarian hatred,” Hudgins said in an April HRC PAC release announcing the group’s endorsement.
The DeKalb County seat opened when Rep. Saira Draper ran for the state Senate, the Georgia Recorder reported. “There are things like data centers that, regardless of party, people are not in favor of,” Hudgins told the Recorder. “Two of them are being proposed in my district.”
This was Hudgins’ second run for the seat, after a third-place finish in the 2022 Democratic primary, Atlanta Press Collective reported. “So whether they are supportive or whether they figure out ways to attack me and make my life difficult just because I’m different than they are, I’m grateful because I know who I’m in the room with,” Hudgins told the Recorder in June.
A win would also make Hudgins the first Japanese American in the Georgia Legislature, Hudgins told Atlanta News First in May. “Bentley’s election is a historic moment worth celebrating. Georgia Equality looks forward to continuing our work with Representative-Elect Hudgins as we build a Georgia where all can thrive,” Georgia Equality Executive Director Jeff Graham said, according to WABE.
Sarah McBride Wins a Second Term in Delaware
The Associated Press called Delaware’s at-large House seat for McBride at 8:50 p.m. Tuesday, WHYY reported. GLAAD’s post-election release called her “the first trans woman elected to Congress.”
She opened her 2016 Democratic National Convention speech with “My name is Sarah McBride and I am a proud transgender American,” Delaware Public Media reported.
“Tonight, thanks to a super majority of Delawareans, including majorities in all three counties, everyone can see what I see every single day: that Delawareans are compassionate people, that we are fair-minded, that we judge candidates based on their ideas and not their identities,” McBride told her watch party, WHYY reported. (Her road to Congress is the subject of the documentary “State of Firsts,” Gayety reported in May.)
“That is the Delaware that I know,” McBride said.
