New Political Group Agenda PAC Targets Anti-LGBTQ Candidates
Amidst the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June, a new political action committee (PAC) began to grow roots, and on September 1, it announced itself fully formed as Agenda PAC. With the midterm elections on the brink, the committee has set out to fight anti-LGBTQ bigotry and demand political accountability by contacting voters through paid communications tactics such as direct mail and digital marketing.
Unlike other political action committees such as The Victory Fund—which directly supports LGBTQ candidates through financial and campaign back—Agenda PAC will indirectly benefit queer candidates and community allies by deflecting voter support from candidates opposing LGBTQ rights and legislation.
“Our friends at The Victory Fund are doing incredible work, but sometimes the folks who represent a great threat to LGBTQ folks, in some instances, they’re not running against gay candidates…” Pennsylvania Representative and Agenda PAC board chair Malcolm Kenyatta tells MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart during The Sunday Show. “A part of what we said was, how can we actually be in a position to be full-time focused to going after bigots, on beating beatable bigots all across the country, on actually taking the fight to these people that want to roll back the clock and put us in a position where we have fewer rights in the next 50 years than we had in the previous 50?”
As an example of governmental bigotry working to revoke established rights Kenyatta says, “Not only did you see this radical court be willing to throw out Roe… you also have Justice Thomas just laying out in very plain terms all the other groups and communities and basic and sacred rights that he wants to look at taking away next…”
According to Them, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that the landmark cases—Obergefell v. Hodges and Lawrence v. Texas—which legalized same-gender marriage and decriminalized queer sex, should be reconsidered.
One thing is crystal clear, after Roe our basic freedoms are on the line. The freedoms to love and choose are being threatened by extremist politicians trying to turn back the clock. We won’t sit back, we’re fighting back — that’s our agenda. pic.twitter.com/P3o6M8dIMv
— AgendaPAC (@AgendaPAC) September 1, 2022
Moving forward the committee will target candidates based on their perceived beatability and the potential rippling impact of barring that candidate from their desired political position. Some candidates the PAC intends to counter in 2022 are Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot, California Rep. Ken Calvert, and New Mexico Rep. Yvette Herrell. However, Them reports, that their first target is Pennsylvania republican governor nominee Doug Mastriano. Kenyatta tells Capehart during The Sunday Show that Mastriano’s agenda is to take the country backward to a place farther from the promise of America.
During his nominee victory speech after winning the GOP primary election, Mastriano states that his primary goal is to restore freedom and later announces that on day one—presuming he becomes governor—individuals will only be permitted to use the bathroom that aligns with the gender given to them at birth, and transgender female athletes will be barred from participating in female sports leagues.
Kenyatta says, “I will say as clearly and as plainly to every bigot in every state across the country, we see you; we will do everything we can to beat you, and listen, I wake up every day, have a glass of water, and then think about how I can beat bigots, and that’s what Agenda PAC is going to be doing.”
