Current State Sen. Sarah McBride will now go on to U.S. Congress. With a total of 239,564 votes, she becomes the first transgender person to ever be elected to Congress. Her opponent, Republican John Whalen III, had 173,355 votes as of late Tuesday night.
McBride is relatively new to politics when considering the age and longevity of other representatives; she was elected to the Delaware Senate in 2020 and has worked to pass legislation on health care access and green technologies. She currently serves as chair of the Senate Health and Social Services Committee and is a member of the Senate's judiciary; education; executive; and banking, business, insurance and technology committees.
McBride was born in Wilmington and graduated from Cab Calloway School of the Arts. She went on to receive a bachelor's degree from American University and, shortly after graduating, married her late husband in 2014. She is a proud aunt of seven.
McBride is the first openly transgender state senator in the country. Before becoming a Delaware legislator, she served as the national spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign.
McBride is not the only Delawarean making national history this election; fellow Delawarean and current Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester becomes the fourth on the list of black women ever elected to the U.S. Senate, and is the first woman to represent Delaware in the upper chamber.
