The new member: Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.)
How they got here: McBride claimed Delaware’s sole House seat, defeating former state trooper and retired businessman John Whalen, 58 percent to 42 percent.
Inside the campaign: The historic nature of her candidacy has not gone unnoticed, but issues like expanding access to health care, reducing costs and ensuring access to abortion were key topics for McBride on the campaign trail.
Her website proudly declares she’ll back “any positive policy that advances our country toward the ultimate goal of universal coverage” for health care and fight for “the full range of reproductive health care patients need.”
Her opponent, Whalen, focused his campaign on the southern border and controlling the national debt, telling CBS News “there’s more important things than that” when asked about her identity as a transgender woman.
Key issues: Health care’s been a core focus for McBride since she joined the Delaware state Senate in 2020. There’s also a personal connection: She lost her husband, Andrew Cray, to terminal cancer days after marrying him in 2014.
She has also vowed to continue fighting for affordable child care, housing access, union rights, and paid family and medical leave.
Background: There are familiar Washington stops in McBride’s career: stints in the Obama White House, the Center for American Progress and campaign work. But that doesn’t overshadow the historic nature of her rise to the Hill.
She was the first openly transgender person to speak at a national political conference when she addressed the DNC in 2016. She became the first transgender state senator upon her election in Delaware in 2020. And she’ll become the first openly transgender member of Congress.
Campaign ads that caught our eye: In some very relatable content, McBride said in her opening campaign video that it takes “my morning coffee” among many other things to get the government working better. Another catchy ad featured various unions around the state touting their enthusiastic support for her.
Fun facts: President Joe Biden wrote the foreword to McBride’s 2018 memoir by McBride entitled: “Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality.” She was also student body president at American University.
We’re spotlighting new members during the transition. Want more? Meet Sen.-elect John Curtis.
