President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign is trying to drum up support from LGBTQ voters at the start of National Pride Month.
The campaign plans to attend more than 200 Pride events this month in 23 states, including all the battleground states, and launch a paid media blitz aimed at mobilizing LGBTQ voters, two campaign officials said, details first shared with NBC News. . The campaign will cap off a month of advocacy with a fundraiser in New York City on June 28.
Some of Biden’s allies worry about declining support among LGBTQ voters.
Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off the weekend with Pride Month hello More than 150 LGBTQ leaders and allies in Los Angeles and first lady Jill Biden stood by At the Pittsburgh Pride festival.
“This community is under attack,” the first lady told the crowd, targeting the LGBTQ community.
“Donald Trump is a bully against the LGBTQ community, our families and our country,” he said. “We can’t let him win.”
In January, a survey by LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD found that Joe Biden great support 68% and 72% of registered LGBTQ voters overall and in battleground states, 15% for Trump in both categories.
Still, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights group, recently committed spend $15 million across six battlegrounds Citing concerns about declining support from LGBTQ voters, helping Biden win in November. HRC estimates that one-third of the 75 million “equality voters” who cast ballots this year based on support for LGBTQ rights may not be Biden voters.
“Our primary mission with these voters is to help highlight their electoral interests,” said Brandon Wolf, HRC’s national press secretary. “The contrast between the two candidates couldn’t be clearer, and that’s especially true when it comes to issues of equality.”
The Biden campaign is aware of the statistics and is preparing to pour money into a national and battleground digital and print media campaign that presents Biden as “the most egalitarian in American history” while portraying Trump as determined to curb equality for LGBTQ people. communities.
“Winning campaigns invest early and often in their coalition of support,” said Sam Alleman, the Biden-Harris campaign’s national LGBTQ+ director. “This Pride month is a reflection of real action to mobilize and activate LGBTQ+ voters ahead of November.”
Any softening of support among LGBTQ voters would undermine his priorities for Biden allies, including supports same-sex marriage Before President Barack Obama’s plans to publicly support the issue as vice president in 2012. As president, Biden signed legislation protecting the marriage rights of same-sex couples, ending a ban on transgender Americans serving in the military, and issuing executive orders to protect the civil rights of LGBTQ people.
On Friday, she declared June National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Pride Month, saying “advancing equality for the LGBTQI+ community is a top priority for my Administration.”
The Biden campaign claims Trump will take away LGBTQ rights if voters elect him to a second term. As president, Trump banned transgender people from serving in the military, and as a candidate, he said he opposed gender-affirming care for children.
Even former first lady Melania Trump recently headlined the fundraiser For Log Cabin Republicans, a group that advocates for LGBTQ inclusion in the GOP. Allies of the former president have also recently tried to ensure that the position on same-sex marriage is reflected in the official platform of the Republican National Committee this election cycle. not very true.
The effort appears to be aimed at not alienating voters who are not conservative on LGBTQ rights, such as the GOP base, in a tight general election.
NBC News conducted an exit poll on the 2020 election Biden won 64% of the LGBTQ vote27% compared to Trump.
Wolf argued that Biden has the vision to offer voters a better experience and equality than Trump, citing the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act of 2022 and the creation of rules to protect community members in schools and health care facilities.
“The Biden-Harris administration has appointed more than 200 openly LGBTQ people to serve in all kinds of roles. That’s really important,” Wolf said.
Still, while Wolf fully embraces the Biden-Harris strategy, he acknowledges that Biden has work to do in the queer community and needs to continue to be visible.
“The Biden-Harris campaign has an incredible opportunity to go out into communities and talk about not only what they can accomplish,” he said, “but their vision of what’s possible if we send them back to Whites.” Home.”