Sarah McBride wins election to the Delaware House of Representatives in 2024

Delaware State Senator Sarah McBride made history Tuesday night by winning the race for Delaware’s only congressional district. She will be the first openly transgender member of Congress and is already the nation’s highest-ranking openly transgender elected official.

McBride, 33, defeated Republican John Whalen III, a former police officer and construction company owner.

McBride thanked voters Tuesday night in an Instagram post, saying Delawareans voted in accordance with their values.

“Delaware has made it clear,” she wrote, “that we must be a country that protects reproductive freedom, that guarantees paid leave and affordable child care for all of our families, that ensures that housing and health care are available to everyone. and that this democracy is big enough for all of us.”

McBride said earlier this year that diversity in Congress is important, but she didn’t run for the U.S. House of Representatives because of her identity. Instead, having proven herself an effective legislator, she hopes to generate acceptance through what she calls “the power of intimacy.”

“Once you respect someone as a really hard-working legislator, it’s hard not to see them as a person; It’s hard not to see other people like them as people.” she said in an interview.

But her success comes at a time when former President Donald Trump and other GOP candidates used transgender people as a line of attack during the hot election campaign season and reportedly spent millions dollars while doing this. Trump constantly mentions transgender athletes at his rallies, irritating the crowd with this topic. He has vowed to repeal LGBTQ protections if elected, and his ads often stoke fear about gender-affirming care by linking the practice to undocumented immigrants.

Ad criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris for being “pro-them/them” submitted the image Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine is the former Pennsylvania Surgeon General and Secretary of Health and the first openly transgender person confirmed by the Senate to a federal position.

” READ MORE: More about Sarah McBride

McBride said in a June interview with The Inquirer that the MAGA movement’s “transgender obsession” is part of a “fabricated culture war” designed to distract attention from problems for which Trump has no solutions.

“As people begin to understand the humanity of the people affected by particular policy debates, the ability of anti-equality politicians to find targets and scapegoats ends,” McBride said in an interview. “We’ve seen it with gay people and marriage equality… and I think the same will be true for transgender people. But that only happens when there is full representation.”

McBride will replace U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), who herself made history. when she was elected in 2016, becoming the first woman and first African American elected to Congress from Delaware.

Rochester was elected on Tuesday Delaware’s first black female senator.

Supporters said McBride’s election was a victory for both LGBTQ people and Delaware voters.

“Her service is a landmark achievement on the path to equality,” said Kelly Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group for which McBride once served as spokeswoman. “This historic victory reflects not only the growing acceptance of transgender people in our society, fueled by the courage of visible leaders like Sarah, but also her hard work to demonstrate that she is an effective legislator who will achieve real results.”