U.S. Rep. Everton Blair Jr. (D-Ga.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Gay U.S. Rep. Everton Blair Jr. (D-Ga.) joined close to 100 local LGBTQ Democratic activists and supporters on Tuesday night, Nov. 10, at the D.C. gay dance bar Crush to celebrate the “Blue Wave” Democratic victories nationwide and in D.C. brought about in the Nov. 3, 2026, election.
The event, promoted as the “Victory Lap,” was organized by Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political organization.
Among those in attendance were supporters and campaign workers for D.C. Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George, the Democratic mayoral candidate who won a landslide victory on Nov. 3.
Capital Stonewall Democrats President Stevie McCarty told the gathering his group was honored that Blair, who became Georgia’s first openly gay congressman and the first out Black gay man to win a congressional election in the South, chose to participate in the event.
Blair won the U.S. House seat for Georgia’s 13th Congressional District, which includes the metro Atlanta area, in an Aug. 25, 2026, runoff special election to fill the seat vacated by the death of U.S. Rep. David Scott (D).
Press reports from Georgia show that Blair chose to run in the special election, which was for the temporary position of holding the congressional seat until Scott’s term would have ended on Jan. 2, 2027. Blair did not run in the regularly scheduled Democratic primary and the Nov. 3 general election in which another Democrat, Jasmine Clark, ran and won and will take over Blair’s congressional seat on Jan. 3.
Blair received a thunderous applause when he spoke at the Victory Lap event and thanked LGBTQ Democrats for what he called their important work in helping Democrats across the country win a massive victory in the 2026 midterm election.
Among those attending the event were longtime D.C. LGBTQ Democratic activists John Klenert, Kurt Vondran, David Meadows, and Vida Rangel, who just won election as a D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. Also in attendance was Japer Bowles, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
Gay Democratic activist Randy Downs, co-owner of the Dupont Circle LGBTQ bar and restaurant Protest Pizza and who was appointed this week to the Lewis George mayoral transition team, provided food for the event.
Following the speeches and the Capital Stonewall Democrats holding its annual election of officers, in which McCarty won re-election as president, entertainment was provided by local drag performer TrevHER.
“It went really great, and all of our members are super fired up,” McCarty told the Washington Blade in commenting on the event. “We’re ready to ride this rainbow wave into 2027 and build on the incredible work of this past year in 2026,” he said.
He added, “All of our endorsed candidates won their faces. And we’re set to keep building on that track record and expand on our programming, especially to serve LGBTQ Democrats year-round, not only in election cycles.”
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