DOVER, Del. (NEXSTAR) – Delaware has elected Democrat Sarah McBride, which would make her the first openly transgender state senator in the country’s history when she is sworn in.
McBride, a trans activist who acted as a spokeswoman for the Human Rights Campaign for several years, defeated Republican Steve Washington for the state seat.
“I think tonight’s results demonstrate what I’ve known my entire life, which is that the residents of this district are fair-minded, and they’re looking at candidates’ ideas and not their identity,” McBride said Tuesday night. “It is my hope that a young LGBTQ kid here in Delaware or really anywhere in this country can look at the results and know that our democracy is big enough for them, too.”
McBride easily won the Democratic primary in her Wilmington-area district in September.
She has long-standing ties to Delaware’s best-known political family. She worked on the late Beau Biden’s campaigns for state attorney general, and Beau’s father, Joe Biden, wrote the foreword to her memoir.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
