LGBTQ+ Victory Institute hosted its first of two LGBTQ+ Candidate & Campaign Trainings (CCT) for 2025 in Houston, TX. It was an incredibly successful program with a selective group that is a testament to the importance of LGBTQ+ representation across the country.
This training we were also joined by our 2025 Victory Empowerment Fellows (VEF) who attended a day of programing ahead of starting the training with the rest of the cohort. Below are some brief highlights from the impactful weekend:
- The training had 54 participants representing 24 states.
- 8 of the participants (14%) were admitted to our Victory Empowerment Fellowship.
- 9 of the participants (16%) found their way to the CCT application through another Victory program, mostly our International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference and our LGBTQ+ Public Leadership Summits.
- 25 of the participants (46%) are people of color.
- 19 of the participants (35%) are people of marginalized gender experience (12% cisgender women & 22% transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, intersex, or Two-Spirit)
- 10 of the participants (18%) are actively running their campaign while 35 of the participants (64%) are seriously considering running in the next 2 years.
We were also joined by a handful of fantastic speakers, including Mayor Annise Parker, City Councilmember Mario Castillo, Judge Shannon Baldwin, and City Councilmember Jonathan Estrada. Our returning LGBTQ+ Elected Official Trainer was Nashville City Councilmember-at-Large Olivia Hill.
LGBTQ+ Victory Institute will host its final CCT of the year in Los Angeles this September. If you are interested in getting into a training with LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, reach out at training@victoryinstitute.org or visit us at victoryinstitute.org/training to learn more!
