Sarah McBride Makes History as First Trans Member of Congress
McBride, who HRC's Kelly Robinson called a "history-making champion," trounced her Republican opponent 58% to 42%.
Delaware State Sen. Sarah McBride (D-Wilmington) has made history by becoming the first out transgender person elected to Congress.
McBride, best known for her former role as spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, was declared the projected winner by NBC News with 70% of the vote reporting. The Associated Press has not yet called the race, but McBride was leading James Whalen III, a former police officer, by a margin of 58% to 42% for Delaware’s sole congressional seat.
A former White House intern during the Obama administration, employee of the Center of American Progress, and board member of Equality Delaware, McBride has been credited as one of several influential activists who successfully lobbied for the passage of Delaware’s comprehensive nondiscrimination law protecting the rights of LGBTQ individuals.
She is also a passionate advocate for increased health care access and paid family and medical leave, positions informed by the loss of her late husband to cancer, as she told Metro Weekly in a 2019 interview.
She previously made history when she became the first out transgender person to address a Democratic National Convention in 2016.
She made history again when she ran for a state senate seat, becoming the first out transgender person to be elected to the upper chamber of a state legislature four years ago. (Virginia State Sen. Danica Roem became the first transgender person to serve in the lower chamber of a state legislature three years earlier.)
McBride will replace Democratic U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who gave up her House seat to successfully pursue a bid for the U.S. Senate.
The LGBTQ community celebrated the historic milestone — a glimmer of good news on a night when the close race between presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was still undetermined, and results were slowly trickling in.
“America now has the opportunity to learn what Delawareans have long known — Sarah McBride is a devoted public servant, a bulldog for her constituents, and someone who represents the interests of everyone she serves,” Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement.
“As the first openly transgender person to serve in Congress, her service is a landmark achievement on the march toward equality. This historic victory reflects not only increasing acceptance of transgender people in our society, ushered in by the courage of visible leaders like Sarah, but also her dogged work in demonstrating that she is an effective lawmaker who will deliver real results.”
Robinson called McBride a “history-making champion.”
LPAC, the nation’s only organization dedicated to advancing the political representation of LGBTQ women and nonbinary candidates, also celebrated McBride’s win.
“In her time serving as a Delaware State Senator, Sarah McBride has continually demonstrated her commitment to being of and for the people,” Janelle Perez, the executive director of LPAC, said in a statement. “In addition to blazing a trail as our country’s first ever out transgender Congressperson, she is a leader in championing healthcare, reproductive rights, environmental justice, racial justice and gun safety. We are lucky to have her in Congress, fighting for all of us.”
U.S. Reps. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), the co-chairs of Equality PAC, the campaign arm of the Congressional Equality Caucus, praised McBride’s victory as a “watershed moment in American politics.”
The political action committee had invested early in McBride’s race, spending $365,000 to help McBride win the Democratic primary and the subsequent general election in the Democratic-leaning state.
“Equality PAC’s mission has always been to make sure every part of our community has a seat at our nation’s most important table: Congress,” Takano and Torres said in a statement. “With Sarah’s win tonight, we have finally made that goal a reality. In the midst of a fraught national election cycle plagued by anti-LGBTQ and specifically anti-trans fear mongering from the GOP, Sarah has proven tonight that the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice and that ultimately, most people are good. Sarah represents one of Equality PAC’s greatest success stories.”
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