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Delaware Sen. Sarah McBride won the state’s only House seat on Tuesday, becoming the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, NBC News reports.
McBride, a Democrat, received 57.6% of the vote and defeated Republican John Whalen III with 63% of the vote.
McBride’s key priorities in running for Congress were expanding access to affordable health care, protecting reproductive rights, and increasing the minimum wage. She told NBC News in September that her goal in Congress was to work with her colleagues to break the partisan deadlock and actually pass the bill. He became famous for this when he was a senator from Delaware. During her first term, she helped pass universal family and medical leave across the state.
Jake Carpenter, 42, who works in finance at a university near Lincoln, Delaware, met McBride at a handshake event in August and asked, “What did you promise and how did you do it?” He said he was asked. She explained to him the policies she worked on in the state Senate, and “she convinced me,” he said.
“I knew she was transgender, and I was gay myself, so I wanted to see someone like me, someone who is part of the community, succeed.” Carpenter said. “She’s like a hero to me.”
He knocked on dozens of doors in Sussex County, the only Republican-majority county in the state, to talk to people about McBride’s platform. He said he convinced six Republicans to vote for McBride.
He is the advisor for the LGBTQ club at the university where he works, adding, “This is a really big deal for trans students.”
Kelly Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, called McBride’s victory “a milestone in the march toward equality.”
“This historic victory not only reflects the increased acceptance of transgender people in our society, spearheaded by the courage of visible leaders like Sarah, but also the talented people she is who will deliver real results.” “It reflects her tenacity to prove herself as a member of Congress,” Robinson said. In a statement, HRC added that it was proud to watch McBride, who previously served as the organization’s national spokesperson, “reimagine the chamber of Congress.”
McBride is no stranger to making history. She first made headlines in April 2012, when she came out as transgender in American University’s student newspaper at the end of her term as student body president.
That same year, she interned with the Obama administration and became the first trans woman to work in the White House, according to her 2018 memoir Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality. .
And in 2016, she became the first transgender person to speak at a major political convention when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
In 2020, she was elected to represent Delaware’s 1st Senate District, which includes parts of Claymont, Bellefonte, Edgemoor and Wilmington, becoming the country’s first openly trans state senator.
McBride was interested in politics from an early age. By the time she turned 18, she had volunteered or worked on at least three political campaigns, including Beau Biden’s 2006 attorney general campaign and 2010 reelection campaign. Almost a decade later, Joe Biden wrote the foreword to his memoir.
McBride said she was thinking about how powerful it would be to vote for Kamala Harris for president while voting Tuesday. Lisa Blunt Rochester wins election to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first woman and first black person to represent Delaware in the Senate. And then herself.
“That ticket is not the final destination, but it is about how far we have come, no matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, It reflects that you can live life, no matter your gender.” Live your truth and dream big at the same time,” McBride said. “It’s not the end, it’s the beginning.”
This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:
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