Misty Kathrine Snow (born July 19, 1985)[1] is an American political candidate who was one of the first openly transgender people in the United States to have been nominated by a major political party for a federal office.[2][3] Snow was the Democratic nominee in the 2016 United States Senate election in Utah. This also made her the first transgender person to become a nominee for the United States Senate as well as the first LGBT person to be a major-party nominee for statewide office in Utah.[4][5]
Snow was the first openly transgender candidate to win a major party primary for the U.S. Senate.[11] She won the Democratic primary, defeating fellow Democrat Jonathan Swinton 59.5% to 40.5%.[12]
On November 8, 2016, with 27% of the vote, Snow lost her Senate bid to Republican incumbent Mike Lee, who received 68% of the vote.[13]
Political positions
Snow is a progressive and self-described Bernie Sanders-like Democrat. Policy priorities include increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, paid maternity leave, expansion of Medicare and Medicaid, clean energy, and LGBT nondiscrimination efforts.[14]
^"Bio". Misty K. Snow for U.S. Senate. Archived from the original on October 23, 2016. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
^Greene, David. "Misty Snow Aims To Be The Nation's First Transgender Senator". npr.org. KUER 90.1. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018. Snow: You know, I was raised LDS myself so I kind of know that culture. Most of my family's LDS. A lot of my friends are LDS. ... I didn't, like, have a lot of support to transition when I was younger, so I ended up doing it kind of more, like, a more - like, over the last few years. ... Yeah. When I was, like (unintelligible) I didn't have support from my mother to transition and, you know, so I put that off for a long time.
^As seen on Chelsea, Chelsea Handler's Netflix show, season 1, "Whoa, I'm a Pop Star"