Could This Be the First Out Gay Man Elected to the U.S. Senate?
Dan Baer, a 42-year-old former diplomat for the Obama administration, is making progress in his effort to become America's first openly gay senator.
Baer, a Democrat, is hoping to challenge Colorado's Republican junior senator, Cory Gardner. Once known as a bastion of conservatism, Colorado is increasingly liberal — in 2016, the electorate voted for Hillary Clinton and elected the nation's first out gay male governor, Jared Polis.
Baer just received the endorsement of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which works to elect out candidates to political office. In its announcement of the endorsement, the organization noted that Baer pulled in a "record-breaking $1.35 million fundraising haul in the second quarter — the largest ever initial fundraising report for an openly LGBTQ Congressional candidate."
Under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Baer served as a deputy assistant secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; he then worked under Secretary of State John Kerry as U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, focusing on issues like human rights and Russian aggression, according to The Denver Post. After President Obama left office, Baer was appointed by then-Gov. John Hickenlooper to serve as executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education.
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