Sarah McBride could make history as first openly transgender member of Congress
‘For our democracy to work, it needs to include all of us,’ the Delaware state senator said in an announcement.
Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride announced on Monday that she is running for her state’s open at-large House seat, a potentially history-making bid: McBride would be the first openly transgender person elected to the U.S. Congress.
In a video announcing her candidacy, McBride focused on the work she’s done in the Delaware Senate to help pass paid family leave.
She said trans representation in politics is especially important now, as Republicans in legislatures across the country and in Congress are working to pass anti-transgender laws that would criminalize gender-affirming care and ban transgender girls from participating in school sports.
“In 2020, I became the first openly trans person elected to serve as a state senator anywhere in the country. It really felt like America was blazing a path to the future,” McBride tweeted Monday morning. “But since then, the far-right has tried to use the LGBTQ community as a scapegoat for their policy failures. As they’ve increased their attacks on families and kids, it has become even clearer: for our democracy to work, it needs to include all of us.”
McBride is the first well-known Democrat to announce a bid for the state’s lone House seat, which will be open in 2024: Incumbent Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester on June 21 announced a bid to replace retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Carper.
McBride may not be the only Democrat to run for the state’s lone House seat. Six Democrats ran in 2016, the last time the seat was vacant.
She has close ties to President Joe Biden, whose home state is Delaware. Biden wrote the forward to McBride’s 2018 memoir; McBride had worked on the attorney general campaigns of Biden’s late son Beau.
Shortly after she announced her campaign, McBride was endorsed by five leading LGBTQ rights organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign and the National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund.
Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, said of McBride’s candidacy: “We’re at a pivotal moment in American history and American politics, where the progress that we’ve made is under near-constant attack. McBride’s lived experiences, courage, and proven record of leadership has prepared her to bring the fight of Delaware’s families to our nation’s capital.”
McBride also picked up endorsements from End Citizens United // Let America Vote, a group that says it works to “fix our democracy by getting big money out of politics and protecting the right to vote.”
“From the expansion of affordable health care to protecting our environment to rooting out corruption, Sarah will continue to be a champion for the people in Congress,” ECU // LAV president Tiffany Muller said in a news release. “We are proud to endorse her and are looking forward to helping her win.”
Delaware is a heavily Democratic state. In 2022, Blunt Rochester won the at-large House seat with 55.5% of the vote.
Whichever candidate emerges as the winner of the Democratic primary is the odds-on favorite to win the seat in November 2024.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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