State Sen. Sarah McBride, the country’s highest-ranking transgender elected official, announced her candidacy Monday to become Delaware’s next sole congresswoman.
McBride, if elected, would become the first trans person elected to federal office, catapulting the already nationally known politician to an even bigger stage. She would also be the youngest elected official Delaware has sent to Washington since President Joe Biden’s U.S. Senate win in 1972.
“I am certainly cognizant of the uniqueness of my candidacy, of the uniqueness that my voice would bring to the halls of Congress,” she said. “But ultimately, I’m not running to be a trans member of Congress.
“I’m running to be Delaware’s member of Congress who’s focused on making progress on all of the issues that matter to Delawareans of every background.”
It’s a callback to her state Senate campaign, in which McBride ran on the notion of serving as a “senator who happens to be transgender.” Her announcement comes at a fraught time for trans Americans as a wave of GOP state legislatures have introduced bills to ban gender-affirming care and participation in sports teams for minors. A Delaware Republican senator reintroduced a bill (Richardson) last week that would require students to play only on sports teams that correspond to their biological sex.
I support her. Hope to get a chance to knock doors on her behalf.