In a bizarre turn of events that should embarrass anyone living in San Francisco, two mayoral candidates had a woke-off at a recent debate. The contest involved the candidates competing for who could virtue signal the hardest for the LGBTQ community.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed got into the “Who Loves LGBTQ the Most” competition with one of her opponents, Mark Farrell.

"I’d like to ask Mark a question," Breed began saying. "You were at the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club and couldn’t name any LGBT advisers to your campaign. You were at the debate last week and couldn’t name any drag queens on your own."

"I was wondering if you could — this is an opportunity to redeem yourself. And if you could name three LGBTQ advisers for your campaign and three drag queens in San Francisco," Breed continued.

In response, Ferrell – also a Democrat – said two on his staff are in the "queer community" but that he wouldn't identify them.

"We’re not going to revise the drag queen question from last week," Farrell punched back. "But what I will say is I’m incredibly proud of support that I have from the LGBTQ+ community here in San Francisco."

Farrell emphasized his track record of supporting San Francisco's LGBT community. During his tenure on the Board of Supervisors, he authored legislation to prevent same-sex couples employed by the city from facing federal taxation on their healthcare benefits, a measure enacted before same-sex marriage was legalized.

"I will stand by my record of that, and I look forward to the continued support from our queer community throughout the city of San Francisco," he said.

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It is unclear who won the battle of the woke, as both candidates vigorously affirmed their undying devotion to the LGBTQ community. But there is one thing that occurred to me while even deigning to read about this story.

This is the type of rhetoric Democrats typically use with black Americans and other groups of people who are not white, straight, or transgender. The candidates were employing the strategy of exploiting “marginalized” groups to obtain power. By positioning themselves as the candidate who would possibly do the most for the LGBTQ community, they are leveraging this group to win the mayoral race.

This is par for the course with far-left Democrats. They purport to care for the concerns of certain communities while not actually doing much of anything to help them.

In this case, Breed and Harrell sought to appeal to the electorate by pandering to LGBTQ residents, of which there are many in San Francisco. Instead of running on policy and competence, they simply have to declare how much they care about LGBTQ folks, and they can not only win elections but remain in power for as long as they would like.

Must be quite an easy way to gain power. Just throw around drag queens and queer folks, and you’ve got it made. Unfortunately, this does not necessarily translate to tangible benefits for any American, regardless of sexual preference or gender identity.