Trailblazing Wisconsin Assemblywoman Tammy Baldwin won her 1998 election to represent the Madison-area 2nd District in Congress, making history on multiple fronts. The 1998 election victory made Baldwin the first woman to represent Wisconsin in Congress as well as the first non-incumbent LGBTQ candidate elected to Congress. She was the first out lesbian to ever serve in in the U.S. House, and later – following her 2012 U.S. Senate election – the first LGBTQ official to serve in both chambers of Congress. 

Baldwin was one of four lesbians running for Congress in 1998 who received Victory Fund’s support, and the only successful candidate of the group. Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, a high-profile activist for gay rights in the military, ran in Washington’s 2nd Congressional District. California Assemblymember Christine Kehoe challenged Rep. Brian Bilbray in California’s 49th District. Victory Fund also endorsed former state Rep. Susan Tracy, who ran for Congress in Massachusetts’ 8th District but didn’t advance in the primary.

An anti-LGBTQ law targeting gay/straight alliances in Utah’s public schools is what initially motivated Jackie Biskupski, a law enforcement professional, to run for the state House. As a Democrat running in a favorable suburban district, Biskupski didn’t have a hard time competing for the seat. But that didn’t stop the Utah Eagle Forum from sending a mailer to 6,000 residents warning them of the dangers of her homosexual agenda. The mailer backfired and was almost universally condemned, including by Republicans and Biskupski’s GOP opponent. Ultimately, Biskupski won the seat by a 2-1 margin, becoming the first out LGBTQ candidate elected in Utah history. 

Biskupski served seven terms in the Utah House before retiring in 2011. Victory Fund supported Biskupski in several of her elections, including her successful 2015 bid for mayor of Salt Lake City.

Victory Fund executive director William Waybourn and other co-founders organized the Campaign for Military Service in early 1993 to press for lifting the ban on gay people serving openly. After President Clinton signed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), Victory Fund supported the new Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, founded by Michelle Benecke and C. Dixon Osborn. The cruel absurdity of DADT was underscored in the military’s pursuit of gay Republican Arizona State Rep. Steve May, a Mormon and an Army veteran, who was elected in 1998 with Victory Fund support to become the first openly gay GOP state legislator in the country. He was serving in the House when he was called back to the Army Reserves as a first lieutenant during the crisis in Kosovo. When he mentioned “gay dollars” during a legislative funding debate, the military launched an investigation into May for violating DADT. May balked and talked forcefully about the importance of an open military, and the Army eventually dropped its pursuit. He finished his tour of duty in April 2001. 

“One day our armed forces will hold all of our troops strictly and equally to the same high standards of conduct—instead of arbitrarily discriminating against exemplary officers like Steve May,” Victory Fund executive director Brian K. Bond said in a 1999 press release. “It is sad that, while the people of Rep. May’s district are willing to treat him based on his job-related merits, the military is not. Voters value honesty—it’s a shame that, at least with respect to our gay soldiers, the military doesn’t. One day the military’s misguided policy of mandatory discrimination will end.”

First elected in a special election to the D.C. Council in 1997, David Catania won his first full term on the council in 1998 with the support of Victory Fund. A Republican until 2004, Catania acted as a leading voice on equality, accessible healthcare, and safety. He’s credited as a major force in the effort to ensure marriage equality for same-sex couples in the District, which passed in 2009 in a 13-1 vote by the council. 

President Bill Clinton appointed gay business leader Fred Hochberg to be Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Senate confirmed his nomination in 1998, making him one of the highest-ranking out leaders to ever serve in a major role in the executive branch. A Democratic activist and donor, Hochberg was later appointed to lead the Export-Import Bank by President Obama, breaking another barrier for LGBTQ leadership on the global stage.