Delaware State Senator Sarah McBride makes history, becoming the first openly transgender member of Congress.
McBride defeated her Republican opponent, John Whelan by a 58 to 42% margin.
She joins newly elected U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester, the first Black Delawarean and first woman to hold one of Delaware’s U.S Senate seats.
"Our Congressional delegation looks like Delaware and looks like America. We reflect the beautiful diversity that makes our state of neighbors great,” said McBride. “With the election of Lisa Blunt Rochester, with the election of candidates up and down the ballot here in Delaware that look like our state we once again prove that Delawareans are fair minded and are judging candidate based on their ideas and not their identity.”
McBride is no stranger to making history. She was the first transgender woman to work in the White House, as an intern in 2012. When she was elected to the Delaware Senate in 2020, she became the highest-ranking openly transgender elected official in the country.
McBride centered her campaign on health care reform, touting her work on the Delaware Healthy Families Act, which provided up to 12 weeks of family and medical leave. She also focused on economic issues and reproductive rights.
Now she heads to Capitol Hill with a similar agenda she plans to champion.
““...which is to lower coast facing families. To provide a little bit of support for people as they face the inevitable challenges of life. To build a government that more fully respects us by delivering affordable healthcare, affordable housing, and affordable childcare, while also protecting dignity and our rights like reproductive freedom in this country," said McBride.
McBride’s win keeps the state’s US House seat in Democratic hands. She succeeds Lisa Blunt Rochester won the U.S. Senate seat vacated by retiring Senator Tom Carper with her victory of Republican John Whalen.
The state’s lone U.S. House seat has been in Democratic hands since 2011.
