802 Votes in Geauga County
Amy Heutmaker ran for township trustee in Russell Township, Ohio — a small community in Geauga County, east of Cleveland. She ran on local issues: infrastructure, fiscal responsibility, community planning. She described herself as a “woman who happens to be transgender.”
On September 10, 2025, a Facebook group doxxed her as trans. The comments included death threats. Russell Township police monitored her house. She brought security to a public speaking event.
She considered dropping out. Her dad reminded her she had been interested in politics since she was a kid.
She stayed in. On November 4, voters cast 802 ballots for Heutmaker, electing her to the Board of Trustees. She became one of the first openly trans people elected to municipal office in Ohio, joining Dion Manley, who won a school board seat in Gahanna in 2022.
She Didn’t Run on LGBTQ Issues
Heutmaker told the Buckeye Flame she never made LGBTQ issues her platform. She thought her community wouldn’t have supported that. She ran on the same things every township trustee runs on — roads, budgets, services.
But her identity was made an issue by others. The doxxing, the threats, the Facebook comments. She did not choose to make this a referendum on trans acceptance. The internet did that. She won anyway.
After the election, she said she still wants to see what she can do in office to help the queer community. But first: the zoning questions, the road projects, the budget.
220 LGBTQ Candidates in 2026
Heutmaker is part of a larger wave. The LGBTQ Victory Fund has endorsed 220 candidates for the 2026 cycle across 19 states. Congresswoman Sarah McBride, the first openly trans member of Congress, is running for Senate in Minnesota. In Wisconsin, Madison Common Councilmember Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford could become the first trans person in the state legislature. In Maryland, Josie Caballero is running for Montgomery County Council, representing over one million constituents.
In 2024, at least 34 out trans candidates won their elections — in a cycle where anti-trans ads were among the most aired political advertisements in the country.
34 trans candidates won in 2024. $215 million was spent on anti-trans ads the same year. The ads ran. The candidates won.
The Pattern
The attacks get the headlines. The wins do not. Amy Heutmaker did not trend on social media for winning. She trended for being threatened. The 34 trans candidates who won in 2024 did not get the same coverage as the bills that tried to erase them.
That gap — between what is happening and what is covered — is what this series exists to close.
Read more on the LGBTQ Rights hub and our Ohio state page.