In Georgia, two trans candidates believe voters are ready for them

This story was reported in partnership with Uncloseted Media, an investigative LGBTQ nonprofit newsroom. ATLANTA AND CARTERSVILLE, Georgia — Bentley Hudgins is a 33-year-old democratic socialist who spent the past three years advocating for LGBTQ+ rights in the Georgia statehouse. Bella Bautista is 10 years younger, the first transgender woman to win a legislative primary in Georgia and head of a nonprofit distributing supplies to at-risk young adults.

Both are running for a spot in the Georgia House of Representatives, part of a cohort of Democrats who hope to shrink or end Republicans’ hold on the chamber. Both would make history as the first trans members of the body. Neither wants to discuss identity politics or pronouns — they want to talk about data centers, the price of groceries and healthcare.

But their districts are very different: Hudgins is running in a liberal stronghold in Atlanta with no serious Republican opposition and is all but certain to win in November. Bautista’s district is rural and deeply conservative; it hasn’t elected a Democratic state representative since 1996, and she’s the first to run for this seat since 2010. But Hudgins’ and Bautista’s bets are the same: Voters are looking for someone to fight for them.

In their view, something in the country is broken and no one else will fix it. Without that, they believe the future — especially for LGBTQ+ people and immigrants — isn’t certain. In the hourlong drive from Atlanta to Cartersville, where Bautista grew up, suburbs fade away and the land expands into RV lots, farms and houses on the edge of the woods.

Bautista launched her campaign in this small town, at Noble & Main Coffee Co., across the street from a butcher shop that offers deer processing. She’s running for office in the more rural side of the county, an area that’s about 80 percent White, mostly older and mostly conservative. And it’s been a challenge.

Most people here vote Republican. Her opponent, the GOP incumbent Mitchell Scoggins, has not run against anyone since he first won a special election in 2018. Lack of change is what spurred Bautista to run.