With a meteoric rise, transgender lawmaker to make history in Congress

WILMINGTON, Del. - The tiny state of Delaware made history Tuesday night as a buoyant candidate in a cobalt-blue dress took the stage here, claiming the victory that will make her the first transgender member of Congress.

“Our democracy is big enough for all of us,” exulted Democrat Sarah McBride, a 34-year-old state senator whose meteoric political rise marks an extraordinary moment for the country’s trans community.

It’s also a rare high point, given the escalating violence that people such as McBride have faced across the country and the efforts by many legislatures - though not her own - to limit their rights. Conservative lawmakers in virtually every state have introduced more and more measures to restrict gender transition care or block trans girls from participating in sports.

In Congress, Republicans have pushed anti-trans bills for years. And during the final month of the 2024 presidential campaign, the GOP spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-trans ads.

“The fact that the candidacy of someone like me is even possible … is a testament to Delawareans,” McBride said Tuesday.

She spoke to a crowd of jubilant supporters packing an election watch party for Democrats in the Chase Center in downtown Wilmington. Not surprisingly, attendees included members of several national LGBTQ organizations, which hope her presence in the nation’s capital can help change minds.

“Sarah McBride is a devoted public servant, a bulldog for her constituents and someone who represents the interests of everyone she serves,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, for which McBride was once national spokesperson.

Though barely a decade past her college days at American University in Washington, McBride already has run in and won three elections. Yet her first big moment in the national spotlight was in 2016, when she became the first openly trans person to speak at the Democratic National Convention. She shared a bit of her background, remembering how scared she was when she came out as trans in college - while serving as student body president.

“Since then, I have seen that change is possible,” she told delegates, then continued, “But despite our progress, so much work remains,” she continued. “Will we be a nation where there’s only one way to love, only one way to look and only one way to live? Or will we be a nation where everyone has the freedom to live openly and equally; a nation that’s stronger together?”

Her triumph Tuesday is one answer, with Josie Caballero of the nonprofit group Advocates for Trans Equality describing it as “a moment of profound significance” and “a testament to the resilience, power and bravery of the trans community.”

McBride handily defeated Republican John Whalen III, a former Delaware State Police officer. The relatively unknown Whalen, 70, had campaigned on stopping illegal immigration and reducing federal debt. McBride, by contrast, pledged to focus on making child care, housing and health care more affordable.

That would build on her efforts during two terms in the state Senate, where she championed the landmark Healthy Delaware Families Act. The bill, the largest expansion of Delaware’s social safety net in decades, provided paid family and medical leave to workers. The leave issue was personal to her, she said. Her husband died of cancer just days after they had married, and she wanted to ensure that other people with a seriously ill partner would be able to take time off to care for them.

She also supported measures expanding access to health care, requiring mental health and media literacy education in public schools, promoting green technologies and preventing lead poisoning in youths - work applauded by New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer, the state’s next governor. This week he praised McBride’s “rigor,” calling her an “extraordinary” lawmaker who was able to dig through state budgets and find the funding needed to expand Medicaid.

Her prominence in the legislature was not always easy personally. In June 2023, the same week she announced her bid for Congress, she also sponsored legislation to keep a person’s sexual orientation from being used against them in court to prove a crime. Security on the Senate floor was increased during the debate because of concerns for her safety.

“I spoke about the violence that many LGBTQ people live with, and then I paused and waited for Republican colleagues to say it wasn’t an issue,” McBride recounted Tuesday. Yet something different happened.

“Every single Republican in that chamber stood up and declared they would vote for the bill,” she said. “The security on the floor reinforced the realness of the issue.”

On the afternoon of Election Day, McBride mingled with supporters in a leafy neighborhood of Wilmington. Everyone understood the magnitude of what she was aiming to achieve, and the mood felt like a flashback to the massive Women’s March on Washington after Donald Trump was first elected president in 2016. Lawn signs on the block read, “Grab them by the ballot.”

“People have seen that I have a track record of rolling up my sleeves, digging into the details, bringing Democrats and Republicans together,” she said later. “That’s what I’ve been campaigning on. I’m not running on my identity.”

Her focus would be not only to block anti-trans attacks but also to “create change by being a damn good congresswoman,” she said. “We know the divisions and nastiness that we too often see in our national politics must not be and do not have to be our new normal.”

Once the polls closed in Delaware, it became a night of firsts for the state. U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D) won her race for the U.S. Senate, setting her up to become the first woman and first Black person to represent Delaware in that chamber.

At the Democrats’ party, there was expectant enthusiasm along with stomach-churning worry. A 15-year-old and his mother were among those tracking the vote tallies that began appearing on the room’s giant television screens, showing Trump - whose presidential campaign had run many of those attack ads on the transgender community - capturing state after state.

The teen said he was proud to have McBride represent him and Delaware but “really scared what the future will bring.”

His mother, who like her son spoke on the condition of anonymity because of concerns for his privacy, echoed that fear. “Will gay people still be able to be married? Will there be violence against gay people?” she asked, tears in her eyes. “This is not something we thought he would have to worry about.”

Still, the room erupted in celebration when McBride’s race was called. A large contingent of family members would eventually join her onstage.

For all the electricity in the air, she was calm and composed as she began speaking.

“Tonight is a testament to Delawareans that here in our state of neighbors, we judge candidates based on their ideas and not their identities,” McBride said in her nod to the history she was making.

She then turned to a simple truth, as she put it, “that hope as an emotion, hope as a phenomenon, only makes sense in the face of hardship. … While at this moment in America’s history, hope sometimes feels hard to come by, we must never forget that we are the beneficiaries of seemingly impossible change.”