Angela Bridgman is a Democrat and the first openly transgender person to run for the state legislature. Bridgman is running for Senate District 18.  The district includes all of Franklin County and much of eastern Wake County, including Wake Forest, Wendell, Zebulon, Knightdale and Rolesville. 

 

"If I was going to be elected, and if I was running solely on the issue of LGBT equality, then I'm running on the wrong reasons because less than 1 percent of what I have to do in the state legislature would have anything to do with those issues," Bridgman, who lives near Wendell told the Wake Weekly.

 

Bridgman's legislative priorities are  giving local governments in rural areas the power to build local broadband internet connections, preventing private schools from receiving state tax funds if they discriminate against students with disabilities, and installing a nonpartisan citizens committee to oversee redistricting and end gerrymandering

 

Sarah Crawford, a director of a local nonprofit, is also running for the Senate District 18 Democrat nomination.