Delaware Candidate Runs To Be First Transgender Member Of Congress

Topline

Democratic state senator Sarah McBride has announced a run for Delaware’s only U.S. House seat, hoping to be the first transgender person to serve in Congress, as GOP lawmakers continue to escalate restrictions on transgender rights and healthcare.

Delaware State Senator Sarah McBride attends Dylan Mulvaney’s Day 365 Live! at The Rainbow Room on … [+] March 13, 2023 in New York City. Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

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Key Facts

McBride, 32, posted an announcement video Monday morning vowing to buck division on Capitol Hill using “guts and a backbone” to stand up for “the people in Delaware who aren’t seen.”

The campaign video included clips of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) as a voiceover called out politicians “who want to divide us.”

McBride, a former national press secretary for LGBTQ+ advocacy organization the Human Rights Campaign, has a close relationship with the Biden family but will probably face a primary challenge for the House seat, which covers the entire heavily Democratic state, the New York Times reported. R

Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), who currently holds the seat, last week said she would run to replace retiring Sen. Thomas Carper and vie for a chance to be the third Black woman ever elected to the Senate.

Tangent

McBride’s campaign comes after a decade of milestones. She was the first openly transgender person to serve in the White House as an intern for President Barack Obama, the first transgender Democratic National Convention speaker and the first openly trans state senator when she ran for her current seat in 2020. McBride also worked for late Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden—the president’s son—and former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell. She worked on the Healthy Delaware Families Act, which brought paid family and medical leave to the state. Her campaign website lists priorities including healthcare access, reforming the criminal justice system and focusing on “building a green economy.”

Key Background

McBride’s bid collides with more than a dozen Republican-led states passing bills that restrict access to gender-affirming care, restrict discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools and prohibit public school officials from being required to use preferred names or pronouns. In particular, a wave of states have sought to ban gender-affirming treatments for most transgender children, a move that has been condemned by advocacy groups and several major medical associations. In her interview with the New York Times, McBride called the recent policies “cruel,” “wrong” and “unconstitutional.”

Crucial Quote

“There will certainly be attacks, but I’m no stranger to those,” McBride said about potential backlash to her campaign.

Big Number

13. That’s how many current senators and representatives identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, a record number ever in Congress, according to the Pew Research Center.