Gina Ortiz Jones won a runoff election on June 7, 2025 and became the first gay mayor of San Antonio. She is also the first Asian-American female mayor of a major city in Texas, and the first female mayor in Texas to have served in a war.
Jones is a former Air Force officer, and Iraq War veteran, and served as Under Secretary of the Air Force during the Biden Administration. She defeated a hatemonger Rolando Pablos, an anti-gay advocate.
Harvey Milk, born May 22, 1930 in Woodmere, New York, graduated from New York State College for Teachers in Albany, majoring in mathematics. He joined the US Navy as a diving officer during the Korean War. He left the Navy in 1955, accepting an "other than honorable" discharge rather than being court-martialed for being gay.
He moved to the Castro area of San Francisco, where many gay men who had been expelled from the military had congregated.
Amid many scandals and trials, Milk was elected mayor of San Francisco November 8, 1977, winning over 16 other candidates. His swearing-in made national headlines since he was the first non-incumbent openly gay man in the US to win an election for public office.
He sponsored a bill that passed by a vote of 11-1 that banned discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations, housing, and employment. Mayor George Moscone signed it into law.
On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a disgruntled former city supervisor who cast the only vote against Milk's bill.
David Chiu, born in China, lived in Hong Kong and Australia before moving to the United States. He ran for mayor of San Marcos, Texas in 2000, and won, making him the first Asian American to become mayor in the state of Texas. He served for two years when he was defeated in the 2002 election.
Adam Graham, the youngest and first gay mayor of The Village, Oklahoma, resigned after only two months in office because he become the target of threats that were getting more violent. Graham, elected in May 2022, sent a letter to the city manager that he had been followed home from meetings, threatened while walking his dog, and his tires had been slashed.
He said it had been a "great privilege to break boundaries", but he no longer felt safe to serve as mayor.
Kinjiro Matsudaira, born September 13, 1885 in Pennsylvania, was an American inventor and politician in Maryland. He was the son of a Japanese father and an American mother. In May 1912, he filed for a patent concerning the functions of a thermometric fire-detector and was granted the patent in September 1914.
He entered politics and, in 1927, was elected as mayor of Edmonston, Maryland, a small community just outside of Washington, DC. He is the first Asian American to be elected mayor in the US. He was re-elected as mayor in 1943.
Robert Garcia, born December 2, 1977 in Lima, Peru, is the first fully Latino and LGBT member of US Congress. He immigrated to the US with his mother at the age of 5. He attended California State University, Long Beach and later got his master's Degree at University of Southern California.
In 2009, he was elected to the Long Beach City Council. In 2012, he was unanimously elected to Vice Mayor of Long Beach, becoming the first Latino Vice Mayor and youngest in Long Beach's history.
Garcia ran for mayor in 2015 and was reelected in April 2018.
He announced his candidacy for California's 42nd congressional district in the US House of Representatives.
Norman Mineta, born November 12, 1931 in San Jose, California, is the first Asian-American to be elected major of a major US city. In 1971, he ran against 14 candidates but became the first Japanese-American mayor of a major US city.
He was elected to the US House of Representatives for California's 13th congressional district.
In 2000, he was appointed by President Clinton as US Secretary of Commerce, making him the first Asian-American to appointed to a presidential post.
In 2001, Bush appointed him as Secretary of Transportation, becoming the only Democrat to serve in W's cabinet and the first Asian-American to hold the position.
Jackie Biskupski is the first openly gay mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, a Democratic politician, and the second female mayor of the city. She served from 2016-2020. was a member of the Utah House of Representatives from 1999-2011. She lives in Salt Lake City with her wife Betty Iverson and their sons, Archie and Jack.
She did not seek a second term, citing a "serious and complex family situation".
Richard A. Heyman was the first openly gay mayor of Key West, Florida, and one of the first openly gay public officials in the United States. He served Key West from 1983-1985 and 1987-1989. Under his administration, he made it illegal for Key West employers to fire staff who had HIV/AIDS.
He passed away of AIDS-related pneumonia in September 1994.
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, born March 17, 1970, is the second African-American woman to serve as mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. In 1995, she became the youngest person elected to the Baltimore City Council, representing Districts 5 and 6.
She became President of the Council in January 2007 and became acting mayor when Sheila Dixon resigned from office in February 2010.
Rawlings-Blake sought a full-term mayor in 2011 and won, getting 84% of the vote. After criticism of her handling of the 2015 Baltimore Riots, she announced that she would not seek re-election in the 2016 race.
Pierre Caliste Landry, born April 19, 1841 in Louisiana, became the first African-American to be elected mayor in the United States. He was elected as mayor of Donaldsonville, Louisiana in 1868. Landry was born into slavery on a sugar cane plantation in Ascension Parish.
At the end of the Civil War, Landry moved his family to Donaldsonville and was elected mayor during the Reconstruction Era in 1868. He was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1872. He was elected to the Louisiana State Senate in 1874 and served until 1880.
James R. Ford, born December 1, 1925 in Tallahassee, Florida, is the first black mayor of Tallahassee and the first black mayor of a U.S. capitol city. He was elected in 1972 and then re-elected in 1976 and 1982.
After leaving office, he served fourteen years as Tallahassee city commissioner, during which he helped establish the Minority Business Department.
Neil Giuliano, born October 26, 1956, is the first openly gay mayor in the United States. He was elected for four consecutive terms as mayor of Tempe, Arizona from 1994 to 2004. He wasn't out at the time of the first election, but came out during prior to the second election.
In 2008, he changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, and there was speculation that he would run for governor of Arizona in 2010, but he did not.
Giuliano also served as president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a group dedicated to ensuring the LGBT community have accurate, fair and inclusive representation in the media.
Since the Donald and the TEPA have no interest in preserving our global environment, mayors from over 50 cities from Canada, Mexico and the U.S. signed a formal agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emission in their cities. They met last week at a climate change summit in Chicago and pledged to meet goals simliar to those in the Paris Climate Agreement, from which the Donald withdrew the U.S.
President Obama spoke to the assembly, discussing the rising global temperatures, rising sea levels, worsening storms and droughts as evidence of climate change.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel touted the absence of leadership in Washington, DC and said mayors are taking the reins to fill a leadership void created by The Donald. The Chicago Climate Change commits cities to reducing carbon emission reduction targets by 2025.
Raymond Telles became the first Mexican-American mayor of a major U.S. city, when he was elected in 1957 for El Paso. He ran unopposed for a second term, then President Kennedy appointed him as Ambassador to Costa Rica. In 1967 President Johnson appointed him as chairman of the U.S.-Mexican Border Commission. President Nixon then appointed him chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Lelia Foley is the first African-American female to be elected as mayor of a U.S. city, Taft, Oklahoma in 1973. Her election led her to confer with Presidents Ford and Carter. She was honored by the state of Oklahoma as Woman of the Year in 1974.
