Delaware elects first trans-identifying member of Congress

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Trans-identified Democratic congressional candidate from Delaware Sarah (Tim) McBride speaks at a press conference on the steps of Delaware Legislative Hall on March 4, 2024, in Dover, Delaware. If elected, he would be the first trans-identified person to serve in the U.S. Congress. McBride, who represents Delaware's First State Senate district, has worked for former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, the late Attorney General Beau Biden, the Obama White House, and most recently as the national spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign. | Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

Delaware elected the nation's first trans-identifying individual to serve in the U.S. Congress last week.

Sarah McBride, 34, who was born Tim McBride, defeated Republican John Whalen III last Tuesday with 57.8% of the vote.

McBride, who made headlines in 2020 when he was elected as the country's first trans-identifying state senator, will represent Delaware's at-large congressional district, which had been held by Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., since 2017.

Rochester won her race to represent Delaware in the U.S. Senate last week, and will be the first female and first black person to represent the state as a senator.

"Tonight is a testament to Delawareans that here in our state of neighbors, we judge candidates based on their ideas and not their identities," McBride said at an election night victory celebration.

McBride drew media attention in April 2012 when he announced himself as transgender in the student newspaper of American University, where he was serving as the student body president.

McBride would go on to intern at the White House during the Obama administration, and President Joe Biden penned the foreword to his 2018 memoir Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality.

In 2006, McBride worked for Biden's late son Beau on his attorney general campaign in Delaware. He reportedly played a role in shaping Biden's views on LGBT issues, according to CNN.

The Washington Post wrote an in-depth profile of McBride in 2018, recounting McBride's struggle with gender identity from an early age and his short marriage to Andrew Cray, a trans-identifying woman who died of oral cancer four days after they married in 2014.

McBride, who met Cray at the White House in 2012, penned an op-ed for The Huffington Post that year lamenting the loss.

In 2016, McBride became the first trans-identifying person to address a political convention by speaking at the Democratic National Convention to endorse former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

McBride's victory comes after President-elect Donald Trump presented opposition to transgender ideology as a major part of his platform, especially when it comes school curricula and men competing in women's sports.

According to a June 2023 Gallup poll, 69% of Americans agreed that sports teams should be segregated based on sex.

The Harris campaign's emphasis on cultural issues such as transgenderism hurt her among key swing voters, according to a study conducted by public opinion research firm Blueprint.

After inflation and illegal immigration, the third most-popular reason voters gave for not backing Harris was that she "was too focused on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class," according to the study.

Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com