Who is Sarah McBride? Delaware state Senator to be first openly transgender person elected to Congress- The Week

Sarah McBride is set to make history on Tuesday as she is set to win Delaware’s sole House seat. A victory would make her the first openly transgender person who got elected to Congress.

The Demoractic state Senator from Delaware defeated Republican rival John Whalen III. She won 57.8 per cent of the vote when 95 per cent of the total ballot was counted.

On Tuesday night, she said in Delaware that people judge candidates based on their ideas and not their identities.

This is not the first time McBride is making history. In April 2012, she came out as transgender in the student newspaper of American University. She also became the first transgender woman to work in White House during the Barack Obama administration the same year.

Four years later, she was the first transgender to address a major political convenction at the Democratic National Convention.

In 2021, she became the first openly transgender state senator from Delaware’s 1st Senate District.

McBride also remembered her late husband, Andy Cray, who died of cancer in 2014, a few days after they tied the knot. “My time with Andy reinforced for me a simple truth, that hope as an emotion, hope as a phenomenon, only makes sense in the face of hardship,” she said.

During her campaign, McBride advocated for affordable health care, protection of reproductive rights and hike in wages.