The Human Rights Campaign is rebuilding parts of its senior leadership ranks ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, adding veteran operatives in policy, litigation, strategy, communications, and state advocacy as the LGBTQ+ rights movement prepares for another defining political cycle.
The organization announced Wednesday that it had made several senior appointments, including Kate Childs Graham as chief strategy officer, Sharon McGowan as senior vice president of policy and litigation, Laura MacCleery as vice president of policy and law, Densil Porteous as vice president of volunteer leadership, Ramiro Sarmiento as national press secretary, and Mo Jenkins as Texas state director.
The hires come at a moment when LGBTQ+ advocacy groups are recalibrating for fights that now stretch from school boards and statehouses to federal agencies, courtrooms, corporate America, and the 2026 ballot.
“As attacks on LGBTQ+ people continue across the country, HRC is investing in the experienced leadership needed to meet this moment,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. “These leaders bring decades of expertise across public policy, advocacy, communications, electoral strategy, and coalition building. Together, they will help accelerate our work to defend our community, expand equality, and build the power needed to create lasting change.”
The personnel moves also come weeks after Brandon Wolf, the Pulse survivor and gun violence prevention advocate who had served as HRC’s national press secretary, left the organization to return to Equality Florida as senior director of communications strategy. In May, Wolf told The Advocate that he was returning to Florida’s “front lines” ahead of the 10th commemoration of the Pulse nightclub massacre, saying, “I’m not headed back to the front lines in spite of my time at HRC. I’m headed back there because of it.”
That shift underscored the degree to which national LGBTQ+ organizations and state equality groups are treating the coming months as a test of infrastructure as much as ideology. After years of Republican-led attacks on transgender rights, inclusive education, health care access, and LGBTQ+ visibility, movement leaders are staffing up not only to respond to crises, but to shape the political terrain before voters cast ballots next year.
Among HRC’s hires is McGowan, a former Justice Department and Office of Personnel Management official during the Obama administration who later held a leadership role at Lambda Legal during the first Trump administration.
Graham, who previously led West Wing Writers and worked in political communications for Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, campaigns, and progressive organizations, will oversee strategy and storytelling across HRC. MacCleery, who most recently worked at UnidosUS, brings experience in civil rights, democracy, privacy, technology, and economic justice policy.
HRC is also adding organizing and state-level capacity. Porteous, who previously led Stonewall Columbus, will oversee volunteer leadership. Jenkins, a Texas native and former executive director of the Texas House LGBTQ+ Caucus, will lead the organization’s work in a state that has become one of the most aggressive laboratories for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
Sarmiento, who most recently served as press secretary for Kat Abughazaleh’s congressional campaign in Chicago, will take over as national press secretary. HRC said he will help the organization reach audiences in English and Spanish.
