contender

Alex Mohajer talks his historic candidacy, the “lawless” Supreme Court, & his love of ‘Drag Race’

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Alex Mohajer is currently running for California State Senate in Orange County’s 37th Senate District. If elected, he will become the first openly LGBTQ+ legislator from Orange County, as well as potentially the only Iranian in the California state legislature.

And if that’s not impressive enough, he just announced a major six-figure fundraising haul.

Since announcing his run for office back in March, 38-year-old Mohajer, who is the president of the Stonewall Democrats, has pulled in an impressive $117,000 from over 500 contributors.

From the onset of his campaign, he has said he will not accept funds from corporate PACs, corporate healthcare lobbies, or the fossil fuels industry. Most of the money came in the form of small-dollar donations.

Queerty had a chance to chat with Mohajer over Zoom. We talked about his historic candidacy, his thoughts on the recent SCOTUS decision granting private businesses the right to refuse services to LGBTQ+ people on religious grounds, his love of Drag Race, and so much more. Here’s what he had to say…

QUEERTY: You’ve talked openly and proudly about your identity as a gay Iranian man. How does this enhance your candidacy for state senate in California?

MOHAJER: We have the largest diaspora of Iranians in the state of California, outside of Iran. Yet we have no Iranians in the California legislature. There was a great exodus out of Iran in the 1970s, when that country was overthrown by religious extremists. My family was a part of that first wave of ex-pats that came to the U.S., hoping to give their kids opportunities that they didn’t have.

Being an openly gay Iranian men, I think, sets me apart. I certainly don’t want people to vote for me because of that, but I think it’s a perspective that we’ve never seen take office. And this intersection of identities, it represents something different. It’s a perspective that’s needed and that isn’t represented. There’s so much I can relate to with immigrant families and LGBTQ+ people and others who have been marginalized in their lives.

On the subject of marginalized communities, last month the Supreme Court decided that private businesses can discriminate against LGBTQ+ people based on religious grounds. In a tweet, you had called the ruling hurtful and heartbreaking and describe the court as “lawless”. Can you expand on that?

This Supreme Court is stacked by appointments from unpopular presidents and confirmed by a Senate that represents the minority. The Senate is evenly split, but Democrats represent at least 30 million more Americans in the U.S. Senate than the Republicans do. That’s because of the way the U.S. Senate is structured, which is in and of itself not exactly a representative body.

So, when we have these flaws in our system that allow for this kind of minority rule, we see justices acting lawlessly–stripping away rights, going against precedent, and creating their own doctrines by which they justify their decisions. And now they’re using it as their basis for their decisions to undo people’s hard fought rights.

For them to so brazenly issue these decisions in the face of the will of the electorate, the will of the American people, the will of the majority, is lawless. It calls into question this Court’s legitimacy. And the implications for what other rulings could result from this are dire.

Confidence in the Court has been on the downward trajectory for a while now. How do we fix that? Is it even fixable?

We need our legislators, our Democratic legislators, and this president to address this lawlessness and look at reforms for the court that will prevent this kind of minority rule from being forced down our throats and into American households.

The president needs to be looking at ways we reform the court and respond to this lawlessness. The federal government needs to be intervening on this. And if we can’t get the legislation passed, the states need to be acting to mitigate as much harm as possible.

When you say the president needs to respond, what would you suggest he do specifically?

The president should start exploring reforming the courts. And by that I mean expanding the Supreme Court.

He said recently that he doesn’t want to do that. He believes it would only further politicize the Court, potentially forever, and only make the problem worse.

The court has already been politicized. We’re seeing the politicization of the Supreme Court. This is actually a bench of activist judges. And so we need to respond to that in order to protect people’s rights. So I do think the president is missing the mark on that.

We’re entering into the next presidential election cycle and Republicans are already using LGBTQ+ people, and especially trans people, as a wedge issue. The attacks on the queer community have been bad, and they’re probably going to get worse, and will likely bleed into state elections like yours. How is your campaign preparing for what could be a really hateful election season?

You know, I am not super worried about that. Because the feedback that I’ve gotten has been so positive. I think this anger is being fomented by a very small group of very loud folks. So many people I’ve met are so excited to hear there’s an LGBTQ+ person running in Orange County, because Orange County has never had an LGBTQ+ legislator before. Even in the Iranian community, which I wasn’t sure whether or not this would be received well, because there’s really no LGBTQ Iranian representation anywhere, I have received such positive feedback.

What are some examples?

Iranian people saying, “My daughter is LGBTQ! We’re with you!” Messages from queer Iranian young people, which is going to make me tear up right now, saying, “My family has had a hard time with my queer identity, but they saw your campaign video, and they were so excited about you that it opened up a dialogue about me.” A text message from somebody saying, “Your campaign video was shared in my family thread and my nephew came out as a result.” So I’ve been receiving nothing but positivity.

Moving onto some more personal questions, what’s the gayest thing about you?

I love RuPaul’s Drag Race. It celebrates what’s different about us. It’s like this act of protest, and I appreciate our community’s history of activism. It’s really the thing that has inspired me most in my life. I have a great reverence for the decades of activists that have come before me. Marsha P. Johnson, and Larry Kramer, and the folks throughout history that have passed along this fight. And I also appreciate our ability to find some bursts of joy in this life, and to shirk norms and expectations.

Obviously, you’re very busy running for office. But everybody needs their downtime. So, aside from watching Drag Race, what’s something you do to check out?

[Laughs] I mean, the answer is Drag Race. Aside from that, I think everyone should find a partner who can be a sense of grounding for them through an experience like this, and I’m lucky to have one. We take little road trips. I’m a big traveler. I’ve backpacked around 30 countries. So any chance I can get to go on a little road trip or to even daydream about future trips is something that gives me a great deal of joy and peace.

I also have just really good friends. My best friends I’ve known for 20 plus years. Since high school. We grew up together. We’re in Orange County. So I love spending time with them. They’re my rock. They’re the people that I can just laugh with and where I find the most serenity through this process.

What are your plans for the rest of this summer?

I wish I could tell you I have plans to go to Fiji, but this campaign is basically a full-time commitment through March of next year, and I’ve thrown myself in head first. Keeping it running is a lot of work, but it’s also really gratifying to talk to voters. Going out into the community, doing events, talking to Iranian people and LGBTQ+ people, and just building the campaign out day by day. It’s the thing I find most enjoyable about the process. So that’s how I’ll be spending my summer. That’s the true answer.

I’m really excited about the changes we’re going to make. And, at the end of the day, I’m doing this because I want to make life better for people. My mom came from here in the 1970s to give her kids opportunities that she didn’t have. She’s so much of the reason why I’m doing this. To honor that experience. And I know so many people share that experience as well.

What does she think about you running for State Senate?

[Laughs] My mom is the star of this campaign! And she loves it. She’s a little Iranian woman with a little accent and she is my secret weapon. She loves meeting people. I hoist her out to meet people at campaign events because she’s just so lovely and has worked so hard in her life.

My mom worked a union job for nearly 30 years and worked overtime, and worked nights and weekends, and went to school at night, just so we could pay the rent. I shared a bedroom with her until I was 17 years old because we didn’t have a lot. And so I see her sacrifices and what she gave up of her own dreams and what she would have liked for her own life in service of her kids having a better shot than she did. And I honor that so deeply. It moves me and it’s why I am who I am. So she’s the star of the campaign for sure. She is my reason for being. And she’s my best friend. And yeah. She’s definitely the star of all this.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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