Delaware: Who is Sarah McBride? The first transgender senator in Congress history

History has been made even before the results of the 2024 US elections are out. The US House of Representatives saw the first transgender state senator Sarah McBride elected in Delaware. She won against the former Delaware state police officer and businessman Republican candidate John Whalen III. The win came on Tuesday in the general elections where McBride won the at-large House seat.

Also Read: ‘We're Doomed’: Pittsburgh's election judge steps down after anxiety hits over Kamala Harris…

Who is Sarah McBride?

McBride was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. Politics piqued her interest since she was young, as her parent told NBC. At a young age, she participated in several political campaigns such as Beau Biden’s initial campaign and re-election for her hometown’s attorney general. At the age of 21, in 2011, she came out as a trans woman and shared the information via her university student paper and a viral post on Facebook, as reported by The Guardian.

McBride has since devoted herself to working on LGBTQ+ rights in her state and beyond. She worked on anti-discrimination laws in Delaware to protect transgender people. Later, she became the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, a group that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights. McBride also taught public policy at the University of Delaware and wrote a memoir in 2018 called Tomorrow Will Be Different, according to her state senate biography.

However, her win to the House seat is not the first time she has made history in her career in politics. Followed bybecoming a Democratic member of the Delaware Senate, she became the first trans woman to get elected to the state senate in 2020. In 2012, she was the first trans person to work at the White House as an intern during the Obama-Biden administration. In 2016, she made history as the first transgender person to speak at the Democratic National Convention.

Also Read: Kamala supporters at Howard University watch party seen crying and leaving early: See pics

McBride express gratitude upon being elected

Only one seat of Delaware has been Democratic since 2010, as reported by The New York Times. McBride shared a post on X where she wrote, “Thank you, Delaware! Because of your votes and your values, I am proud to be your next member of Congress.” She added, “Delaware has sent the message loud and clear that we must be a country that protects reproductive freedom, that guarantees paid leave and affordable child care for all our families, that ensures that housing and healthcare are available to everyone and that this is a democracy that is big enough for all of us.”

In the primary race to get the nomination, she defeated three other Democratic candidates in September and eventually won. She maintained the lead in the general election race against Whalen with more than 20 percentage points at one point. Prior elections she revealed to CBS News what it would mean to her to be elected to the Congress as the first transgender person stating: “It is a testament to Delawareans that the candidacy of someone like me is even possible.”

She was supported by various prominent lawmakers including President Joe Biden who congratulated her publicly following her primary victory. The current representative for Delaware, Lisa Blunt Rochester also endorsed her long before the race in September.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.