Human Rights Campaign president celebrates blue wave, but demands Dems deliver: ‘Now it’s time to govern’

Democrats in races large and small handed Republicans a historic defeat Tuesday, taking control of Congress and winning offices in states long considered beyond their reach. For LGBTQ+ Americans, the election brought breakthroughs in representation and a decisive repudiation of the policies of President Donald Trump. For transgender people, it also brought the hard reality that voters could reject Republican candidates while approving restrictions on their lives.Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson sees both outcomes as instructions for what comes next.In an exclusive interview with The Advocate on Wednesday, Robinson celebrated the Democratic victories while demanding that the incoming majority protect LGBTQ+ people — including those whom some winning Democrats had treated as political liabilities.“The campaign is over, and now it’s time to govern,” Robinson said. “And, if they don’t show up, we’ve got four million members who are going to tell them exactly what they think about that.”The scale of the Republican defeat was extraordinary. Democrats captured both chambers of Congress and flipped Senate seats in Texas, Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kansas and Maine. In Indiana, longshot candidate JD Ford won his election against Republican incumbent Rep. Victoria Spartz, sending the first out gay man from the state that elected Mike Pence to Congress.Related: Democrats flipped Republican seats. LGBTQ+ candidates helped deliver the decisive blowKansas elected its first Democratic senator since 1932. In Texas, Gina Hinojosa and James Talarico broke through decades of Republican dominance to win the governorship and a Senate seat.Republicans’ expensive campaign against transgender people had not protected them from voters’ anger.Asked what voters were telling Republicans who ran those attacks, Robinson said, “They were saying no. They see through the charade.”She added, “I also think Donald Trump has been saying to every