2 Transgender Women Named Misty Make US Political History

Misty Snow wins Democratic primary in Utah, Misty Plowright wins Colorado's
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 29, 2016 12:52 PM CDT
2 Transgender Women Named Misty Make US Political History
Democratic candidate for Senate Misty Snow poses for a photograph Tuesday, June 28, 2016, in Salt Lake City.   (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

For the first time, a major political party is putting up a transgender nominee to run for the United States Senate. Misty K. Snow won the Democratic primary in Utah and will be challenging Sen. Mike Lee in the November election, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Snow is also one of the first transgender people to run for any seat in Congress; another is Colorado's Misty Plowright, who is a Democratic nominee for the US House of Representatives this year. (The first was Karen Kerin, who ran against then-Rep. Bernie Sanders in 2000 in Vermont.) Both Mistys won their nominations Tuesday, the Washington Times reports.

"A lot of people have told me whether I win or lose, I'm already making a difference just by running," Snow tells the Tribune. But her campaign has been focused more on the issues than on her historic status: The 30-year-old grocery store cashier, who never went to college, is in favor of paid family leave, marijuana legalization, a $15 per hour minimum wage, free or reduced higher education tuition, and criminal justice reform. Over in Colorado, Plowright is a 33-year-old IT worker who calls herself an "anti-politician" and wants to get money out of politics. (More Election 2016 stories.)

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