12 LGBT Candidates Who Want Your Support

The Victory Fund, a political action committee that supports openly LGBT candidates for office, has announced its annual list of 12 high-profile, high-stake races to watch.

Among them are potentially the first openly gay Republican to be elected to Congress as a nonincumbent, the first openly bisexual person to be elected to Congress, and the first openly LGBT person of color to be elected to Congress. Additionally, the list includes a handful of state-level trailblazers, most of whom would be the first openly LGBT person in their state to be elected to the legislature.

The list of 12 comes out of a total 180 openly LGBT candidates endorsed by the Victory Fund this year, more than the organization has ever supported.

"We're going to be watching every single race closely, so it’s very hard to choose just a dozen," said Tiffany Muller, Victory Fund’s vice president for political operations. "While each of these races are important for different reasons, they represent what a truly groundbreaking year this has been for LGBT politics. These 12 are expected to be close, and we’ll be fighting all the way up until Election Day."

Click through to see the candidates.