This gay economist running for Congress in California makes his case on the economy

A Southern California congressional primary is quickly becoming a test of a question Democrats can’t seem to settle: whether LGBTQ+ identity is still seen as a political liability or whether the party is misreading what voters actually care about.

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In California’s 48th Congressional District, a newly competitive seat stretching from Palm Springs into Riverside and San Diego counties, Democrats are not just battling for a nomination. They are navigating one of the most crowded and ideologically diverse primaries in the country, with more than a dozen candidates, including high-profile contenders like Ammar Campa-Najjar and San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, as well as a wide field of local officials, business leaders, and first-time candidates.

A recent controversy began with a campaign memo tied to Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar that critics said suggested LGBTQ+ candidates might struggle to build a winning coalition beyond Palm Springs, one of the country’s most prominent queer enclaves. His campaign denied that the memo was referring to LGBTQ+ identities.

Brandon Riker (center) with volunteers supporting his campaign for Congress.Courtesy Riker for Congress

Related: Democrat under fire over campaign memo implying LGBTQ+ candidates aren’t electable in key California race

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Brandon Riker, one of several out Democrats in the race, has chosen not to engage the memo on its own terms. Instead, he is rejecting the premise beneath it.

“I don’t think there are people who are going to support me or not support me because I’m openly gay,” he said in an interview with The Advocate.

What voters ask him about, he said, is far more immediate: the cost of groceries, the price of gas, whether they can afford to stay where they live.

A different diagnosis

Riker’s argument is a rebuke, not just to one campaign, but to a broader strain of Democratic anxiety.

After the 2024 election cycle, some strategists and donors urged candidates to recalibrate their messaging on transgender rights, suggesting the issue had become politically risky. Riker rejects that logic outright. “We didn’t talk too much about trans rights,” he said. “We didn’t talk enough about the economy.”

Related: This bisexual San Diego City Council member is fighting to replace Darrell Issa in Congress

In Riker’s telling, Democrats did not lose because they defended marginalized people; they lost because too many voters no longer believe the party can materially improve their lives.

“If we can’t solve and win on the economy, then we’re not going to be able to protect LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, or protect democracy,” he said.

Identity, without apology

Riker is not running away from identity politics so much as deprioritizing it in his pitch to voters. He speaks openly about being gay. He touts support from LGBTQ leaders. He calls gender-affirming care “medically necessary” and condemns efforts to restrict it.

“I will always stand with the trans community,” he said.

But he resists the idea, implicit in the memo controversy, that identity itself determines electability.

“I fundamentally believe any of us could win this district in a general election if we have the right message,” he said.

The economist’s campaign

Where Riker does want to distinguish himself is in policy, specifically the economy.

“I’d be the only trained economist in the House of Representatives,” he said.

Riker holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Washington College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has also worked in investment and business strategy roles.

He has built his campaign around what he calls a “second New Deal,” a set of proposals to restructure how wealth is taxed and distributed. He has called for eliminating the cap on payroll taxes that fund Social Security, so higher earners continue paying into the system beyond the current threshold. At the same time, he wants to make the first $50,000 of income tax-free, a change he says would put roughly $3,000 back into workers’ pockets annually, “not at tax time, but in every paycheck.”

He also focuses on capital gains, which he argues are taxed too lightly relative to wages. “We have to tax capital gains the way that wealth is really generated in this country,” he said, calling for rates on gains above $1 million, excluding primary homes, to align more closely with income taxes.

“It’s really not an affordability crisis, it’s an economic crisis in the way the system is working,” he said.

Brandon Riker listenst to a town hall participant's concerns as he runs for the Democratic nomination for Congress in his California district.Courtesy Riker for Congress

He describes the current moment not as an affordability crisis but as a “structural economic crisis” that has eroded trust in institutions and fueled political volatility. “What has happened is both parties have failed the working people in this country,” he said.

That failure, he argues, is what drives the oscillation between administrations and the growing appeal of more extreme political solutions.

“If we can’t solve and win on the economy,” he said, “then we’re not going to be able to protect LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, or protect democracy.”