“I’m glad I ran,” 23-year-old Huey Rey Fischer tells the Dallas Voice, reflecting on his recent campaign for the District 49 seat in the Texas Legislature.
Fischer, a queer, vegetarian, Latino “progressive Democrat on a bicycle,” tried to run a less traditional campaign. Instead of TV ads, town halls and radio spots, he used Grindr and Tinder to reach potential voters.
“We were careful about it,” he says. “We, as millennials, know how to use [these sites] without turning off voters.”
Related: Can This 23-Year-Old Queer Democrat Win A Texas Election By Harnessing Grindr?
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His strategy was pretty straight forward: Find guys on Grindr, strike up conversation, see if they were registered to vote, then ask them to cast their ballots for him. He often worked for 12 hours a day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“I definitely ran to win,” Fischer says.
Unfortunately, his efforts fell short. But not by much.
In a crowded field of more than half a dozen candidates, Fischer came in second, with 14 percent of the vote. His opponent, Heather Way, won the election with 19 percent of the vote. Afterwards, she called him to congratulate him on a campaign well run.
Looking back, Fischer says one of the most surprising things he learned from the experience was that the LGBTQ community isn’t nearly as progressive as he originally thought. Despite campaigning in “the most liberal district in Texas,” he heard many members of the gay community decry illegal immigrants, the Black Lives Matter movement and other socially progressive operations.
The other takeaway for Fischer was that one doesn’t necessarily need to be an elected official to make a difference in the world.
“You don’t have to be in elected office to be a voice for the queer community,” he says.
And for any other LGBTQ people thinking about running for office in the future, he says: “They should. It’s exhausting. It’s expensive. It’s totally worth it.”
Related: Candidate Poses Completely Naked In New Campaign Ad Because, Hell, Why Not?
John Malin
I’m glad to hear he ran also. Activism in politics is not just for older dudes and gals, it is for the young too!
Bauhaus
“Looking back, Fischer says one of the most surprising things he learned from the experience was that the LGBTQ community isn’t nearly as progressive as he originally thought.”
Shocking – without progressive thought and values, gays wouldn’t have any rights or protections at all.
zooby
@John Malin: Hi Huey
onthemark
At first I thought the Grindr thing was pretty silly, but like he says it’s expensive to run for office, so I guess it’s good that a young candidate found a novel and FREE way to reach voters. I wonder though how effective it was and how could you even figure out for sure if it was effective or not.
GC1985
He could continue to build his ground roots activism, but grindr might not be the way to do it. His heart is in the right place though and I commend his interest in making a change.
ChuckF
Sadly, try as we might part of us are still our parents. It’s a shame some gay men who are part of a community that’s been discriminated against for centuries can’t find it in their hearts to see the plight of others. Compared to Blacks we’ve had it easy. I hope they will gain maturity as they get older.
Bob LaBlah
I wonder if the outcome would have been different if Rubio had done the same thing.