Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride (D) was projected to win her election Tuesday for Delaware’s at-large House district, making history as the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, according to Decision Desk HQ.
McBride, who was heavily favored to defeat her Republican opponent, Josh Wahlen, a retired police officer, sailed to victory in the deep-blue state. She secured the Democratic nomination for the state’s lone House seat in September with 80 percent of the vote.
“Thank you, Delaware! Because of your votes and your values, I am proud to be your next member of Congress,” McBride wrote Tuesday in a post on X after NBC News called the race. “Delaware has sent the message loud and clear that we must be a country that protects reproductive freedom, that guarantees paid leave and affordable child care for all our families, that ensures that housing and health care are available to everyone and that this is a democracy that is big enough for all of us.”
McBride is no stranger to trailblazing. In 2020, she became the nation’s first openly trans state legislator, and before that, she made history as the first out trans person to address a major party convention when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2016.
At least seven other openly transgender people have been elected to state legislatures since then, according to the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, an organization dedicated to increasing LGBTQ political representation.
“My hope is that we get to a world where it’s no longer newsworthy that people like me are in politics or get elected to public office,” McBride, 34, told The Hill in an interview last year.
Her election comes during a pivotal moment for transgender rights in the U.S. More than 600 bills threatening trans people’s access to health care, education and legal recognition were introduced this year in state legislatures, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker, and 45 became law.
In Congress, House and Senate Republicans filed dozens of bills targeting trans rights and added anti-LGBTQ measures to must-pass federal spending bills.
Former President Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), have promised to bar transgender athletes from female sports teams if they are elected and ban gender-affirming health care for minors, which major medical organizations argue is medically necessary for trans youths and adults.
Republicans across the country — including Trump and Vance — centered transgender issues in their campaigns’ closing arguments, spending more than $200 million on advertising related to transgender athletes and gender-affirming care, according to data from AdImpact. Most of the trans women and drag performers whose images appear in the ads were featured without their knowledge or consent, The Hill found.
Democrats and LGBTQ rights organizations celebrated McBride’s victory on Tuesday.
“As the first openly transgender person to serve in Congress, her service is a landmark achievement on the march toward equality,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ advocacy group that endorsed McBride.
“This historic victory reflects not only increasing acceptance of transgender people in our society, ushered in by the courage of visible leaders like Sarah, but also her dogged work in demonstrating that she is an effective lawmaker who will deliver real results.”
