Palm Springs city council in California will be 100 percent LGBT when two new members are installed in December after victories in Tuesday's election.
Lisa Middleton and Christy Holstege won victories on the council, completing the council that will now include three gay men, one transgender woman and one bisexual woman, the Palm Springs Desert Sun reported.
"You're now looking at a progressive city that remains business-focused," James Williamson, who ran Middleton's campaign, told the Desert Sun. "And I think that's what we're gonna see happen play out over the next 10 years.”
"For a lot of progressives, they've moved away from the kind of Kumbaya politics and they realize if they want the social programs they believe are important, we need to have a strong business-base to support those programs."
Middleton, a transgender woman, joins Andrea Jenkins and Danica Roem as transgender people elected to public office Tuesday, according to the New York Daily News. Jenkins won a spot on the Minneapolis city council while Roem captured a seat in the Virginia state legislature.
"In light of the repeated attacks on transgender people from the federal government, tonight's wins by Lisa Middleton in Palm Springs and other transgender candidates in Minneapolis and Virginia are a beacon of hope that voters have embraced values of equality and inclusion," Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California said in a statement on the organization's website.
"By becoming the first out transgender person to be elected to a non-judicial office in California, Lisa is paving the way for others to follow in her footsteps in California and across the nation," Zbur continued.
Holstege told the Desert Sun that while the changing demographics in Palm Springs and local party leadership played a role in her victory, she said she was boosted an effective grassroots campaigns.
"Lisa and I ran on being positive and forward-thinking and really talking about the issues and hope and change for a better Palm Springs," Holstege told the newspaper.
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