In light of the presidential election, the Freethought Equality Fund is very proud of its openly humanist, atheist, agnostic, and nontheistic candidates who won their races -- demonstrating that secular candidates can succeed in the electoral process.
“Now more than ever, politicians who openly identify as humanists, atheists, agnostics and nonreligious Americans and who advocate for the humanist values of tolerance, compassion and reason must combat the irrationality and bigotry of the religious right,” said
Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the Freethought Equality Fund.
The Freethought Equality Fund applauds the success of
Arizona Rep. Juan Mendez, an open atheist, who won his election for the Arizona State Senate after serving in the Arizona House of Representatives for the 26th District. The Freethought Equality Fund is also pleased with the success of
Nebraska Sen. Ernie Chambers, recently given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Humanist Association at
its 2016 conference, who won re-election in his race for the Nebraska State Senate seat for the 11th District.
Other endorsed candidates who won their elections include:
Athena Salman, an open atheist elected to the Arizona State House’s 26th District;
Chris Kennedy, an open agnostic elected to the Colorado State House’s 34th District;
Tim Smith, an open atheist re-elected to the New Hampshire State House’s 17th District;
Diego
Hernandez, an open agnostic elected to the Oregon State House’s 47th District;
Sam Young, an open agnostic re-elected to the Vermont State House’s 1st District;
Beth Doglio, an open agnostic elected to the Washington State House for District 22-2;
Strom Peterson, an open agnostic re-elected to the Washington State House for District 21-1; and
Melissa Sargent, an open agnostic re-elected to the Wisconsin State House’s 48th District.
The Freethought Equality Fund is also proud of our candidates who, while unsuccessful in gaining their seats, were successful in running positive campaigns that increased the visibility of the secular community in America. Representative of these candidates are
Gayle Jordon, who ran openly as a humanist and atheist for the Tennessee State Senate’s 14th District; and
Jennifer Goulet, who ran openly as an atheist for the Washington State House District 9-1 in conservative eastern Washington
state.
The PAC endorsed a total of 61 candidates at the federal, state and local levels. A full list of endorsements and their election results can be viewed at
http://freethoughtequality.org /endorsements2016/.
