HRC Equality Votes PAC taps former Priorities USA chair as chief strategist

The Human Rights Campaign on Tuesday announced Democratic heavyweight Guy Cecil will serve as chief strategist for its Equality Votes PAC’s 2024 electoral efforts, managing a multimillion-dollar paid media budget to reelect President Biden in November. 

Cecil chaired the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA for eight years before stepping down last March. He led the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee as its executive director for the 2012 election cycle.

Cecil, who is gay, in a statement on Tuesday warned against a second Donald Trump term, which he said would devastate the LGBTQ community “and put all our hard-earned rights and freedoms at risk.”

“Between now and November, Equality Votes PAC will ensure the record-number of Equality Voters understand the existential threat Trump and MAGA politicians pose to our democracy and our very existence – and ensure they vote accordingly,” he said. 

The former president has promised to enact at least a dozen policies targeting members of the LGBTQ community if he is reelected, including a nationwide ban on transgender student-athletes competing in accordance with their gender identity and a federal law that recognizes only two genders. He has also vowed to punish health care providers who administer gender-affirming medical care to minors and roll back new transgender student protections instituted by the Biden administration “on day one” of his presidency. 

Trump in a pitch to voters last year pledged to restore his ban on transgender people serving in the military, a policy that was reversed by Biden in 2021. 

Biden, who frequently touts his administration as the most pro-LGBTQ in history, expanded federal nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people and condemned violence and threats made against the community. In 2022, Biden signed legislation safeguarding marriage equality. 

Biden’s reelection campaign in April launched Out for Biden-Harris, a national initiative to mobilize LGBTQ voters, who played a critical role in his 2020 victory over Trump. The campaign earlier this month said it planned to have a presence at more than 200 Pride events in 23 states, including each of the battleground states that will decide November’s election. 

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, has poured millions into sending Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris back to the White House. The group in May launched a $15 million swing state campaign meant to mobilize “equality voters,” who vote based on support for LGBTQ rights. 

On Tuesday, HRC’s Equality Votes PAC released its first digital ad of the 2024 cycle, using Trump’s past statements on LGBTQ issues to demonstrate how a second Trump term threatens the community. 

The one-minute spot is the start of a seven-figure investment in digital advertising meant to drive equality voters to the polls in November, HRC said Tuesday.