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Who is Sarah McBride? LGBTQ activist becomes first openly transgender state senator elected in US history

In 2012, McBride interned at The White House, becoming the first openly transgender woman to work there in any capacity

LGBTQ rights activist and current National Press Secretary of the Human Rights Campaign Sarah McBride has won the race for Delaware's first senate district, making her the first openly transgender state senator in United States history. McBride ran against Republican Steve Washington. She is now the highest-ranking openly transgender official in the country. McBride will replace Democrat Harris McDowell III, who is retiring at the end of his term. During her run, she stated that her priorities include paid family and medical leave for all workers, reducing costs and increasing competition in the health care industry, and strengthening public schools.

At 30 years of age, McBride has been extensively involved in LGBTQ activism and is largely credited with the passage of legislation in Delaware banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity in employment, housing, insurance, and public accommodations, when she was just 22 years old. McBride is a native Delawarean, the child of David and Sally McBride, who live in Wilmington. She came out to her parents and then her close friends in 2011. Prior to coming out, McBride was a campaign staffer in Delaware, working on several campaigns including Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden's 2010 campaign and Governor Jack Markell's 2008 campaign.

In 2012, McBride interned at The White House, becoming the first openly transgender woman to work there in any capacity. McBride worked in the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, where she worked on LGBTQ issues.

After the passage of Delaware's gender identity protections and hate crimes legalization, McBride worked with the LGBT Progress team at the Center for American Progress. As an activist, she has spoken at a number of colleges and LGBT events, including several events for the Human Rights Campaign. In 2014, she was ranked the Most Valuable Progressive in Delaware by DelawareLiberal.net and was named by MIC as one of the fifty upcoming millennials poised to make a difference in the following years.

McBride came to the forefront of national political prominence in 2016 when she “made history” by becoming “the first openly trans person to address a national party convention.” In her 2016 Democratic National Convention (DNC) speech, McBride posed the questions, “Will we be a nation where there’s only one way to love, one way to look, one way to live? Or will we be a nation where everyone has the freedom to live openly and equally; a nation that’s stronger together?” She also paid tribute to her late husband Andrew Cray — whom she married in August 2014 after he received a terminal cancer diagnosis — and his commitment to LGBT rights.

On receiving the news of her victory, McBride tweeted, "We did it. We won the general election. Thank you, thank you, thank you." She continued, "I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too." She concluded by tweeting, "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."