Allison Montgomery, a biological male who identifies as female, defeated incumbent state Rep. Phillip Rigsby (R-Huntsville) to become Alabama’s first transgender lawmaker.

The Democratic nominee defeated Rigsby 53.2 percent to 46.7 percent.

“I know the headlines tomorrow are gonna be provocative and catchy, but let’s focus on the most important part of this victory: we showed that a truly grassroots campaign that stands on its policies and its principles has a real shot in Alabama,” Montgomery wrote, according to 1819 News.

“We the people are tired of attempts to distract us with culture war issues, whether we’re in a minority group or not. We the people know corporate interests use these issues to pit us against one another while they pick our pockets,” Montgomery added.

More from AL.com:

Prior to the election, Montgomery said her conversations with voters rarely centered on her gender.

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“When I’m knocking doors and talking with voters, they don’t care that I’m trans, and that’s not what I’m focused on either,” Montgomery told AL.com.

Both Senate District 2 and House District 25 are in Madison and Limestone County.

Democrats also held on to a seat they had previously flipped, reelecting Marilyn Lands by a 60%-40% margin in State House District 10. Lands picked up 12,296 votes to Republican Aaron Thomas’ 8,143.

But Republican incumbents held onto seats in close contests, with Rep. James Lomax defeating Democrat James Linderholm in House District 20, and Rep. Rex Reynolds defeating Democrat Forrest Satterfield in House District 21.

“A Huntsville, Ala. trans activist and Democrat has won a state election to become the first transgender-identifying lawmaker in Alabama history. I investigated and found that ‘Allison’ Montgomery is the fake name of software engineer William Tyler Montgomery,” Andy Ngo wrote.

“He has a long history of trans activism to try to stop legal sex-based definitions. He also opposed efforts to require schools to inform parents if their children began using other identities. Huntsville has many far-left extremists, including members of an armed Trantifa cell who were recently federally indicted for allegedly making threats to kill law enforcement and stockpiling firearms,” he added.

Advocate noted:

In mid-October, mere weeks before the election, Rigsby implied Montgomery’s transness would negatively impact the way she governed and interacted with children. In return, she called out the apparent hypocrisy of saying transgender candidates are a threat to children when Republican Alabama State Rep. Brett Easterbrook was recently charged with first-degree human trafficking. The charge was later amended to attempted first-degree human trafficking.

“Republican politicians always point to vague concerns about ‘the children’ when talking about women like myself, while Republican Rep. Brett Easterbrook gets arrested for soliciting sex with a minor,” Montgomery wrote in a Facebook post.

 

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