LGBT Fil-Am Gina Ortiz Jones Almost Wins US Congress Seat

 
Reporting by José Victor (Jayvee) Salameña
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
 


Jones lost by just 689 votes. Had she won, she would have been the first Filipina-American in US Congress, and first openly gay Congresswoman from Texas.Texas, USA – Gina Ortiz Jones, the Filipino-American Democratic candidate for Texas’s 23rd congressional district, fell just shy of becoming the first Fil-Am US Congressperson in history. The Republican incumbent managed to defeat Jones with the slightest of margins by 689 votes.Jones was raised in Texas by an Ilocano mother from Pangasinan. She is also a US Air Force veteran who served in the Iraq War.

Had Jones won, she would also have been the first openly-gay congressperson to represent the state of Texas. She would also have been the first Iraq War veteran to represent Texas in Congress, and the first woman to represent that congressional district.

The margin of defeat of 689 votes is only 0.3% of the total votes cast. As of the time of writing, there is no word yet from the Jones campaign of a request for a recount.

The race for the congressional district was not without controversy. Considered a “purple” district by political pundits, as the district is not a stronghold for either Democrats or Republicans, the later stages of the campaign saw momentum building for Jones and the Democrats, and the Democrats targeted the district as a potential pickup.

As the polls closed, the race was considered “too close to call” for most of the night. As the night progressed, some news outlets showed Jones and the Democrats taking the lead. However, the Republican incumbent regained the lead late in the night. It was not until the early hours of the morning that the Republican victory in the congressional district was confirmed.

The “blue wave” might not have buoyed Gina Ortiz Jones to become the first Fil-Am to the US Congress, but it served as a strong rebuke and repudiation of US President Donald Trump. While the Democrats did not flip this district and were not able to take control of the US Senate, they were able to wrest away 34 other congressional districts. In doing so, the Democrats will now control the House of Representatives, and serve as a powerful check and counterbalance to the Trump agenda.