Former Chicagoan may fall short in bid to become first drag queen in Congress

A former Chicagoan hoping to be the first drag queen in Congress was running in third place Thursday in a contest that sees the top two vote-getters face off in the general election.

G. “Maebe A. Girl” Pudlo, picked up about 11.8 percent of the vote, placing third in the race to unseat Los Angeles-area Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff in Tuesday’s primary. Pudlo was about 1 percentage point behind the second-place vote getter, Eric Early, a Republican, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s website.

Under California law, county election officials are required to report their final results by April 3. California also allows mail-in ballots, and not all of those have been counted, meaning Pudlo still could advance to the November election.

If so, she would face the incumbent Schiff, who had about 57 percent of the vote in the eight-person 28th Congressional District primary, according to the California secretary of state’s website.

Under California law, county election officials are required to report their final results by April 3. California also allows mail-in ballots, and not all of those have been counted, meaning Pudlo still could advance to the November election.

Pudlo was born in Pittsburgh, but her family moved to Chicago when she was nine. She lived here through her late 20s. She didn’t do drag — or identify as a woman — when she was in Chicago.

The Chicago Sun-Times featured her, as George Pudlo, back in 2010, leading “Second City Pizza Tours.” She began doing drag about five years ago, after moving to L.A.

Vote totals in this story has been corrected to state that final results remain unclear, because mail-in ballots are still being counted.