Shafaq news/ Sarah McBride has won her Delaware state Senate race, poising her to become the first and only openly transgender state senator in the U.S. and the country's highest-ranking transgender official. Nbcnews stated.
"I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too," McBride, 30, tweeted Tuesday night after the election was called. "As Delaware continues to face the Covid crisis, it's time to get to work to invest in the policies that will make a difference for working families."
She easily defeated Republican Steve Washington to represent Delaware's 1st Senate District. Incumbent Democrat Harris McDowell, who did not seek re-election after 44 years, had endorsed McBride.
"I've spent my life fighting for people to have dignity, peace of mind, and a fair shot at staying afloat and getting ahead," McBride said in a statement announcing her candidacy last year.
McBride, a former spokesperson for the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, made national headlines in 2012 when she stepped down as American University's student body president and came out as trans in the school's student newspaper.
While still in college, she interned with the Obama administration, becoming the first out transgender woman to work in the White House, according to her campaign announcement.
McBride then became the first trans person to speak at a major political convention in 2016, when she addressed Democrats in Philadelphia.
There are four transgender people in state legislatures, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund. The first was Danica Roem, who won a seat in the Virginia House in 2017.
