State Legislative District Endorsements
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Information for Candidates
Thank you for your commitment to service. Our communities are stronger because of people like you that have chosen to run for office with the vision of giving back to those around you.
Equal Rights Washington (ERW) is a statewide, non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring and promoting the dignity, safety, and equality of all LGBTQ Washingtonians. If you are interested in seeking ERW’s endorsement, please complete our endorsement questionnaire and return it to [email protected].
As candidates, we know you have a stack of endorsement questionnaires to complete. Out of respect for that workload, we want to let you know that our endorsements will be made on a rolling basis. Though we are making the questionnaire available to everybody now, we will not start making endorsements until after the May 10th filing deadline. We will notify candidates one week in advance before we close consideration of their race. Once a race is closed, we will not consider additional endorsements unless our endorsed candidate is eliminated.
We invite all candidates on the ballot to seek our endorsement. The endorsement process will consist of a questionnaire, possible interview, and vote of our endorsement committee. This year we are doing endorsements for State Legislative Districts for the primary. After the primary we will be soliciting statewide races, and congressional races. We will consider candidates from all races that solicit an endorsement once we have solicited the opponent as well to give both candidates an opportunity to be considered.
Equal Rights Washington (ERW) is a statewide, non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring and promoting the dignity, safety, and equality of all LGBTQ Washingtonians. If you are interested in seeking ERW’s endorsement, please complete our endorsement questionnaire and return it to [email protected].
As candidates, we know you have a stack of endorsement questionnaires to complete. Out of respect for that workload, we want to let you know that our endorsements will be made on a rolling basis. Though we are making the questionnaire available to everybody now, we will not start making endorsements until after the May 10th filing deadline. We will notify candidates one week in advance before we close consideration of their race. Once a race is closed, we will not consider additional endorsements unless our endorsed candidate is eliminated.
We invite all candidates on the ballot to seek our endorsement. The endorsement process will consist of a questionnaire, possible interview, and vote of our endorsement committee. This year we are doing endorsements for State Legislative Districts for the primary. After the primary we will be soliciting statewide races, and congressional races. We will consider candidates from all races that solicit an endorsement once we have solicited the opponent as well to give both candidates an opportunity to be considered.
2024 Endorsement Questionnaire
Our 2024 candidate questionnaire is live! Please click on THIS LINK in order to fill out our Google Form in order to submit a questionnaire for us to review. If you would like time to prepare your responses prior to filling out the form, you can find a PDF of our questionnaire below. If you have any questions about your questionnaire after it is submitted please email [email protected] with your query. If you have accessibility needs that is outside of this process as described, please email with your needs.
| ERW 2024 Candidate Questionnaire |
Endorsement FAQ's
1. Does a candidate have to identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender in order to be endorsed?
No. ERW always opened its endorsement process to any candidate willing to seek our endorsement, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. We endorse the best candidates for the job who will represent the LGBTQ community well.
2. When does ERW normally endorse candidates?
The time frame for endorsement varies from race to race based on a variety of factors. We offer an endorsement once we have completed questionnaires from all candidates seeking our endorsement in a race.
3. Does ERW ever make dual endorsements in a race?
Yes. While rare, we may offer a dual endorsement in some races if we feel both candidates will represent the LGBTQ community well.
4. I decided to run for office after you endorsed - will you reconsider your endorsement so I can compete for it?
We require all candidates seeking our endorsement to meet certain requirements and deadlines in order to be eligible for endorsement. Once our committee has endorsed a candidate, we do not reconsider that endorsement unless there is extraordinary circumstances.
5.) What does an ERW endorsement come with?
Upon receipt of our endorsement ERW will provide you with our logo for you to put on any future printed materials. We will post our endorsements on our website here, and on our social media accounts. ERW does not currently have funds in our PAC for financial support, but we are working on fixing that in the future. Should those funds become available, only candidates with an endorsement will be eligible for financial contributions to your campaign.
No. ERW always opened its endorsement process to any candidate willing to seek our endorsement, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. We endorse the best candidates for the job who will represent the LGBTQ community well.
2. When does ERW normally endorse candidates?
The time frame for endorsement varies from race to race based on a variety of factors. We offer an endorsement once we have completed questionnaires from all candidates seeking our endorsement in a race.
3. Does ERW ever make dual endorsements in a race?
Yes. While rare, we may offer a dual endorsement in some races if we feel both candidates will represent the LGBTQ community well.
4. I decided to run for office after you endorsed - will you reconsider your endorsement so I can compete for it?
We require all candidates seeking our endorsement to meet certain requirements and deadlines in order to be eligible for endorsement. Once our committee has endorsed a candidate, we do not reconsider that endorsement unless there is extraordinary circumstances.
5.) What does an ERW endorsement come with?
Upon receipt of our endorsement ERW will provide you with our logo for you to put on any future printed materials. We will post our endorsements on our website here, and on our social media accounts. ERW does not currently have funds in our PAC for financial support, but we are working on fixing that in the future. Should those funds become available, only candidates with an endorsement will be eligible for financial contributions to your campaign.
We encourage anyone to contact us to learn more about our communities and/or the issues we are advocating for. Please email us at [email protected].
2024 Endorsements
Equal Rights Washington (c4) plays a role in elevating LGBTQ-related issues to the to the forefront during an election cycle. ERW’s non-partisan endorsement committee uses a specific set of carefully developed criteria in making our endorsements. We back candidates who have a track record of support for LGBTQ equality in a number of areas, and who advocate on behalf of the issues we support, such as trans justice, gender and racial equity, anti-bullying and LGBTQ youth empowerment.
Questions? Contact [email protected]
Questions? Contact [email protected]
