She is a symbol of hope for LGBT+ activists in this American presidential and legislative election campaign which brings Donald Trump to power this Wednesday, November 6. Sarah McBride, 34, overnight became the first openly transgender person to be elected to the US Congress. The Democrat will represent her state of Delaware in the House of Representatives. In parallel with the American presidential election, several other elections, including the complete renewal of the House of Representatives, took place that night.
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“Thank you, Delaware!” Thanks to your votes and your values, I am proud to be your next member of Congress,” reacted the Democrat on X this Wednesday, November 6. Sarah McBride won her election with 57.8% of the vote in this historically Democratic state, reports NBC News. She faced Republican candidate John Whalen III, a former police officer.
This is not the first time that the future congresswoman has entered the political history of the United States. Since 2020, she has served in the local senate of the state of Delaware – where she is also from.
She previously worked for the White House
Sarah McBride was also the first transgender person to work in the White House. The Democrat completed an internship there in 2012, during the Obama administration. She then spoke at the Democratic Party convention in 2016, becoming the first transgender person to speak publicly at a major political event, notes the “New York Times”.
Interested in politics since a young age, Sarah McBride participated in several political campaigns from the age of 18. It was at the age of 21 that she came out as a transgender woman in her university’s student newspaper. At the time, the announcement made the rounds on social networks and the American press.
Committed to LGBT+ issues, the candidate had explained before the 2024 elections that her priorities, in Congress, mainly concerned the subjects of the cost of childcare, housing, health or the right to abortion, all saying she was aware of her image as a pioneer. “This is a historic achievement in the march towards equality,” reacted Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest organization defending the rights of LGBT+ people in the United States, to the election of the Democrat this year. Wednesday.
“This historic victory reflects not only the growing acceptance of transgender people in our society, but also her hard work to demonstrate that she is an effective legislator,” she said, reports CBC News. Sarah McBride’s victory comes at the end of the campaigns for the American presidential and legislative elections marked, among other things, by television advertisements deployed by the Republican Party targeting trans people.
