Our community’s experience during the first Trump administration motivated and inspired LGBTQ+ voters and our allies, better known as Equality Voters, to show up in record numbers to try and stop Donald Trump’s MAGA extremism from returning to the halls of power. In the 2024 election cycle, the Human Rights Campaign and its political arm ran the largest electoral effort in the 44-year history of the organization, which began with the “We Show Up” campaign, a $15 million investment into the strategic groundwork HRC has laid since 2016. Through Election Day, HRC’s staff, volunteers and supporters conducted over 43 million voter engagement activities including making more than 1.35 million phone calls, knocking over 250,000 doors, and sending more than 35 million messages to members and supporters.

Over 43 million voter engagement activities including:

Equality Voters also showed up at the ballot box. Polling from the Human Rights Campaign shows that Equality Voters overwhelmingly backed pro-equality candidates up and down the ballot. Vice President Kamala Harris received support from 81% of Equality Voters, which is comparable to their support for Democratic candidates in 2022 and President Biden in 2020. LGBTQ+ voters, who made up 8% of the electorate according to exit polls, backed the vice president by an 84-14% margin.

Despite the disappointing results, we saw undeniable proof of hope for the future across the country. In Delaware, former HRC Press Secretary Sarah McBride won her race to represent Delaware in the U.S. House of Representatives. Congresswoman-elect McBride will become the first ever openly transgender member of Congress. In Texas, Julie Johnson, a dedicated fighter for civil rights and a longtime HRC champion, became the first ever LGBTQ+ member of Congress from the South. And in Washington state, Emily Randall will become the first LGBTQ+ Latina elected to Congress.

The U.S. Senate also added trailblazing leaders. Marylanders made history by electing Angela Alsobrooks, who will be the first Black person to represent Maryland in the upper chamber. Similarly, Delawarians elected Lisa Blunt Rochester, who will become the first woman and first Black person to represent the first state in Congress. Wisconsinites re-elected the nation’s first LGBTQ+ senator, Tammy Baldwin, to a history-making third term.

These high margins among LGBTQ+ voters helped keep Democratic Senate candidates competitive, as Equality Voters backed Ruben Gallego in Arizona by 85%, Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin in Michigan by a 78-19% margin, and Sen. Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin by nearly a three-to-one margin.

These victories by pro-equality candidates, alongside pro-equality referendums that won in California, Colorado, Hawaii, New York and elsewhere, occurred despite an onslaught of anti-trans attacks. MAGA politicians spent more $150 million on heinous and hateful ads attacking our community, despite a long history of failure and extensive research showing these ads fail to move voters.

Once again, MAGA attacks on transgender people failed to move voters as just 4% — dead last on this list — identify opposing surgeries for transgender people and trans youth participation in sports as issues motivating them to vote. While these ads may have been politically ineffective, they caused tremendous harm to the transgender community, which is already at high risk of mental health struggles and violent attacks.

Our pro-equality victories provide light in this moment of overwhelming darkness. We are heartbroken by the results of the presidential election and the losses of countless pro-equality champions across the country. Our community is scared, angry and worried about what is next for us and our families.

However, we know that this is not the end of our fight. As dark as this moment is, our community has been here before — and we have always persevered. From Stonewall to the AIDS crisis to the attacks against transgender Americans and our fight for marriage equality, our ancestors and community elders have taught us that resiliency is our superpower. We have always defied the odds to make progress that once seemed unimaginable.

Let us be clear: This fight will be challenging. It will test each of us, our community and our country in ways we rarely have seen before. At the Human Rights Campaign, we are prepared to use every tool at our disposal — from advocacy to education to litigation to campaigns — to protect our community and our rights while making progress where we can.