Misty Dawn Plowright (born 1983) is an American political activist. She is one of the first two openly

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

people in the United States to become a candidate representing a major political party for a national office, the other being Misty Snow. She was the first openly transgender candidate to win a major party

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...

for the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

. She went on to challenge incumbent Republican

Doug Lamborn Douglas Lawrence Lamborn (born May 24, 1954) is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2007 to 2025. He is a member of the Republican Party. His district was based in Colorado Springs. On January 5, ...

representing in the 2016 general election. Plowright lost to Lamborn on November 8, 2016.

Early life and career

Plowright was born in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and at the age of four moved to northwest

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

where she was raised as a

Southern Baptist The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization, the largest Protestantism in the United States, Pr ...

. She is a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

veteran, serving as an

Information System An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, Information Processing and Management, store, and information distribution, distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, info ...

s Operator/Analyst from 2003 to 2004. After sustaining a non-combat injury, she was

honorably discharged A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve. Each country's military has different types of discharge. They are generally based on whether the persons completed their training and the ...

and went on to work in

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

Congressional campaign

Plowright announced her campaign for on March 18, 2016 via

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. Her official campaign website was launched on March 31, 2016, the

International Transgender Day of Visibility International Transgender Day of Visibility, often simply Trans Day of Visibility (often shortened online as TDOV), is an annual event dedicated to celebrating transgender people raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people, ...

. She ran as a progressive and was openly supportive of

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician and activist who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Vermont. He is the longest-serving independ ...

presidential campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referen ...

. After he lost the nomination to

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

, she was considering voting for

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

nominee

Jill Stein Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and perennial candidate who was the Green Party of the United States, Green Party's nominee for President of the United States in the Jill Stein 2012 presidential campaign ...

, stating that she would only vote for Clinton if she "actually truly believed that Trump was Hitler 2.0 and he was actually going to do that level of evil." Plowright lost to incumbent

in the general election, who won his sixth term. She conceded the race the next day.

Personal life

Plowright lives in

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010 United States Census, 2 ...

with her wife, Lisa. The couple entered a

domestic partnership A domestic partnership is an intimate relationship between people, usually couples, who live together and share a common domestic life but who are not married (to each other or to anyone else). People in domestic partnerships receive legal be ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

in 2010. After changes in legislation, they were legally

married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

in 2014. They are in a

polyamorous Polyamory () is the practice of, or the desire for, romantic relationships with more than one partner at the same time, with the informed consent of all partners involved. Some people who identify as polyamorous believe in consensual non-mono ...

relationship with their mutual partner, Sebastian.

Electoral history

References

External links