Politics = Money

The system is set up for money, you want someone to get elected you need money. Money for staff. Money for advertising. Money for consultants.

You need hundreds of individual donations or you can go the corporate route or you can get PAC money… indirectly. PAC “by law” cannot coordinate with the candidate.

TRANSGENDER POLITICAL CANDIDATES ARE INCREASINGLY COMMON. THE MONEY BACKING THEM IS NOT
The lone PAC dedicated to trans politicos is grappling with debt and legal issues.
The Center for Public Integrity
By Lateshia Beachum

About 1.4 million people in the United States identify as transgender at a time when President Donald Trump’s administration has been particularly hostile toward the “T” in LGBTQ — from trying to ban transgender individuals in the military to considering a federal definition of what constitutes gender.

Meanwhile, there are zero openly transgender Americans serving in Congress. At least 51 transgender people unsuccessfully ran for state, local and federal office last year, according to data collected by Logan Casey, a political scientist who now works with the Movement Advancement Project. Nine ran for Congress, but none emerged victorious or even won a major-party nomination.
[…]
A major obstacle for transgender candidates is money: Those nine transgender congressional candidates collectively raised less than $300,000 during the 2018 election cycle, a Center for Public Integrity review of federal records indicates.

Only three of them — Democratic candidates Alexandra Chandler in Massachusetts, Brianna Westbrook in Arizona and once-imprisoned whistleblower Chelsea Manning in Maryland — raised more than $5,000 each. (During the 2016 election cycle, the average winner of a U.S. House seat spent about $1.5 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.)

Meanwhile, there were no exclusively trans-focused political action committees or super PACs raising and spending significant amounts of money to help transgender congressional candidates’ campaigns.

It all boils down to rich donors.

Um… how many trans people do you know?

Most trans people I know are struggling to get by while the opposition has billionaires fighting over who can give more money.

Cunningham [Minneapolis City Council candidate Phillipe Cunningham who won the 2017 election] credits Trans United Fund — it hired a consulting group to advise on tactics such as increased door-knocking and phone-banking efforts — with helping him survive the last months of his campaign. Groups opposing Cunningham spent money on ads and mailers targeting his financial debts.

It takes money to win…

Mora [political strategist Hayden Mora] said Trans United Fund didn’t contribute more money to Roem because she was already receiving large sums of money from donors across the country — Roem outspent her opponent by more than $539,000 — and Trans United Fund wanted to focus its attention on helping the Minnesota City Council candidates, Jenkins and Cunningham.

We have the best government money can buy and we need to change that!

We need to get money out of politics! We need to limit the amount a person can donate and we need to get companies out of politics. We need to limit campaign donations to only voters.

The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) formed a PAC.

National Center for Transgender Equality Launches 501(c)(4) Action Fund

Endorses Spate of Transgender Candidates on 2017 Ballots
Washington, DC – For 14 years, NCTE has worked to influence policy and society at the local state and federal level, and is known as the national leader on these issues with policymakers and the media. But due to the troubling times faced by trans people nationwide, NCTE has formed the National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund, as an assertive political advocacy organization to increase the strength and capacity of the movement to better respond to attacks and the rollback of civil rights protections for nearly two million transgender people in the nation. NCTE already has a strong reputation with policymakers, members of the media and within the movement. The Action Fund will capitalize on NCTE’s expertise and reputation to expand the work for transgender equality.
[…]
The NCTE Action Fund is for transgender people, but also everyone who cares about transgender people—parents, friends, co-workers of trans people who want to work for a better world. The Action Fund will be a strong voice for transgender people, at the ballot box, on Capitol Hill and around the nation.