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April 30, 2008

HRC Endorsements Omit Neal

The Human Rights Campaign released a list Monday of U.S. Senate candidate endorsements -- 14 in all -- but more surprising than who was on the list was who wasn't. Openly gay Democrat Jim Neal, who is running for Elizabeth Dole's seat in North Carolina, did not receive an endorsement in his primary race against state senator Kay Hagan.

Joe Solmonese, HRC president, told The Washington Blade that his group would wait until after the May 6 primary before deciding whom to endorse. Hagan "has a good record," Solmonese told the Blade. "It's a tough race to call in terms of the primary, and so I think, you know, our community down there -- sometimes sitting here in Washington, Jim Neal is certainly someone who a lot of people have really been following here in Washington as an openly gay candidate, but our community down in North Carolina is really rather split between him and Kay Hagan."

"Maybe I'm not gay enough," Neal told the Blade, adding that he wasn't surprised by the omission. "HRC hasn't really been supportive of the campaign for their own reasons, and they're entitled to do so. But elections are won not by endorsements but by votes. That's just how it works. I'm not trying to rack up endorsements. I'm trying to rack up votes."

The candidates HRC did endorse include: Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Joe Biden (D-Del.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.). (The Advocate)

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