Brian Sims, the first openly-gay representative elected to the Pennsylvania State House, will try to unseat an indicted Democratic incumbent Congressman.
In 2012 Brian Sims ran against a 28-year incumbent Philadelphia Democrat and won. Today, the 37-year old civil-rights attorney and Pennsylvania State representative announced he is challenging an eleven-term Democratic U.S. Representative who was indicted on corruption charges.
“They need a champion, someone who will stand up for justice, for equality, for women, to the NRA,” Sims told the Philadelphia Inquirer.Â
His announcement video, below and on his campaign website, starts out so rich in tone, emotion, and history it feels like a Ken Burns PBS documentary.Â
“We face blatant racism on the presidential stage,” he says, calling out Donald Trump, “hatred spun as faith,” calling out Mike Huckabee and Kim Davis, “discrimination in the workplace, and bloodshed in our streets,” Sims says. “I haven’t walked in everyone’s shoes, but I’ve logged enough miles in my own to know I’ll never back down.”
Sims has been a champion for Pennsylvania’s LGBT community and has often spoken loudly for a myriad of social justice issues. He was at the forefront of the fight for a hate crimes law after the Sept. 11 anti-gay hate attack last year on a Philadelphia same-sex couple.
Watch:
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Image: Screenshot via Brian Sims/YouTube