NEW CASTLE, Delaware — Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride won the Democratic primary for the state’s only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, the Associated Press predicted, moving her a step closer to her goal of becoming the first out transgender member of Congress.
McBride, the country’s first out transgender senator, easily defeated opponents Earl Cooper and Elias Weir, receiving 82% of the vote with 28% of the ballots cast.
She is considered the favorite for the general election in predominantly Democratic Delaware and will replace Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester, who is running for the U.S. Senate, in November.
LGBTQ advocacy groups also celebrated McBride’s victory.
“Voters across the country are tired of the divisive politics of the past – that’s why we’re seeing more diverse, young candidates like Sarah McBride winning their primaries,” Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, which works to increase the number of LGBTQ elected officials, said in a statement Tuesday night. “No one is better suited than Sarah to represent Delaware’s values in Congress. I look forward to celebrating Sarah’s victory in November and seeing her advocate for her constituents in Washington.”
McBride was elected in 2020 to represent Delaware’s 1st Senate District, which includes Claymont, Bellefonte and parts of Edgemoor and Wilmington. During her first term, she helped pass universal paid family and medical leave across the state.
Key priorities in her run for Congress include expanding access to affordable health care, protecting reproductive rights, and raising the minimum wage.
McBride has a long list of historic firsts to her name, first making headlines in April 2012 when she came out as transgender in the American University student newspaper at the end of her term as student government president at American University in Washington, DC.
That same year, she became the first openly transgender woman to work in the White House when she interned with the Obama administration, according to her campaign and her 2018 memoir, Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality.
In 2013, she was instrumental in pushing through a bill in Delaware that protected transgender people from discrimination. Then-Governor Jack Markell mentioned McBride by name when he signed the bill.
“She courageously stood before the General Assembly to describe her personal struggle with her gender identity and to share her desire to return home without fear after graduating from college,” he said at the time.
In 2016, McBride became the first transgender person to speak at a major political convention when she delivered a speech at the Democratic National Convention.
