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New Faces in Congress: Rep. Sarah McBride, the Trans Trailblazer [1]
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Date: 2025-06-04
The voters in Delaware managed to do a historic first in 2024 — they voted for a member of Congress who happens to be transgender.
It was her last day in session as a Delaware state senator, and Sarah McBride sat in her tiny office at the state Capitol, preparing farewell remarks. She had made history here, as the first openly transgender state senator in the country. Now she was making history again, recently elected as the first openly transgender member of Congress. Her political promotion has come during a reckoning for transgender rights, when legislation in Republican-governed states around the country aims to curb their advance. During an election where a deluge of campaign ads and politicians demeaned trans people, McBride still easily won her blue state's only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The race was not in doubt, as Delaware is blue enough that Rep. Sarah McBride could accomplish this first. Here is a look at what the history-making campaign was like in the state.
McBride and her parents knew what path she was going to take early on in life.
Dave McBride recalls the moment he knew his daughter, Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, was destined for the political stage. She was about 11 years old and had a pressing question for her father after he finished teaching Sunday school at their local church. “Where’d you get that podium?” Dave remembers his daughter asking, throwing him for a loop. Three weeks later, he was in for a surprise. “I come home one day from work, walk over to her bedroom door … she has an American flag draped over the window, she has the podium, she’s created a cardboard presidential seal and she’s reciting FDR’s 1932 inaugural address. And I thought, ‘We’re in trouble,’” the retired lawyer said with a laugh. A decade later, on Christmas Day in 2011, McBride came out to her parents as a transgender woman. Her mother, Sally, said looking back, she’s not proud of how she and Dave initially reacted. “We knew we’d do whatever she needed us to do, but I thought her life was over,” Sally said from an armchair in McBride’s childhood home in Wilmington. “I thought she’d be discriminated against at every turn. I was frightened for her safety.”
By no means has it been smooth sailing for Rep. Sarah McBride. She’s had to deal with GOP colleagues that are bigoted and transphobic. That will be covered below the fold. However, the first profile of the second season of New Faces in Congress celebrates her life and accomplishments.
Early Biography: Who is Sarah McBride?
Sarah McBride was born in Wilmington, Delaware on August 9, 1990. The article above the fold covers portions of her upbringing while this one gives even more information.
McBride is a Delaware native to her core. The graduate of Cab Calloway School of the Arts grew up in the Senate district she ‘s representing in the Highlands on West 17th Street. There are eight- and 10-year age gaps between her and her two older brothers. “I was a happy accident, I think,” she says, laughing. The siblings were raised by parents Dave and Sally McBride. Dave is an attorney at Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP, and Sally was a guidance counselor who got involved in advocacy, helping found Cab in the early 1990s.
But she had a secret — a secret that only she knew and was very afraid to tell even her close friends and family.
Though she excelled in politics, McBride wrote that since she was a child, she felt like she was living someone else’s life. She knew she was transgender from a young age, but her earliest exposure to trans people was through jokes about them on TV. She said she threw herself into politics in part to create a more loving and inclusive world where others could be themselves, even if she couldn’t. “Something became abundantly clear to me as I read my history books: No one like me had ever made it very far. Or, at least, no one who had come out and lived their truth,” she wrote.
Eventually, the knowledge of this secret about herself got to be too much and she came out in 2011… first to her family and friends and then to the world. Oh, she was the outgoing student body president of the hyperpolitical and prestigious American University at the time.
Yesterday, I ended my term as AU’s student body president. I have learned and grown so much over the last year, both personally and professionally. As proud as I am of all of the issues we tackled together, the biggest take away, for me, has been the resolution of an internal struggle. For my entire life, I’ve wrestled with my gender identity. It was only after the experiences of this year that I was able to come to terms with what had been my deepest secret: I’m transgender. For me, it has been present my whole life, but, for the longest time, I couldn’t accept it. At an early age, I also developed my love of politics. I wrestled with the idea that my dream and my identity seemed mutually exclusive; I had to pick. So I picked what I thought was easier and wouldn’t disappoint people. To avoid letting myself and others down, I rationalized my decision: if I can make life a little fairer for other people, then that work would be so fulfilling that it would make me feel complete and somehow mitigate my own, internal struggles. I told myself that if I could make “Tim” worthwhile for other people by changing the world, that being “Tim” would be worthwhile. As SG President, I realized that as great as it is to work on issues of fairness, it only highlighted my own struggles. It didn’t bring the completeness that I sought. By mid-fall, it had gotten to the point where I was living in my own head. With everything I did, from the mundane to the exciting, the only way I was able to enjoy it was if I re-imagined doing it as a girl. My life was passing me by, and I was done wasting it as someone I wasn’t. I told my family and some of my closest friends over winter break. My brothers and parents greeted me with immediate support and unconditional love. This was the first time that my parents have had to worry about my safety, my job prospects and my acceptance. This story is my experience and my experience alone. There is no one-size-fits-all narrative; everyone’s path winds in different ways. The experience highlights my own privilege. I grew up in an upper-income household, in an accepting environment and with incredible educational opportunities. I never worried about my family’s reaction. But those worries are all too common for most. For far too many trans individuals, the reality is far bleaker; coming out oftentimes means getting kicked out of your home. I say this not to diminish my own experience, but to acknowledge the privilege and opportunities which have been afforded to me. Today is the next day of the life I’ve already had, but at the same time, the first day of the life I always knew I wanted to lead. Starting on Saturday, I will present as my true self. Going forward, I ask that you use female pronouns (she/her) and my chosen name, Sarah. With every birthday candle extinguished, with every penny thrown, my wish was always the same. I am now blessed with the opportunity to live my dream and fulfill a truth I have known since childhood. My gratitude is great to my family, friends and this university for accepting me as the person who they now know me to be, and for letting me show them the possibilities of a life well lived. I now know that my dreams and my identity are only mutually exclusive if I don’t try.
Everyone from the political network she had cultivated to her parents to her friends were entirely supportive of her. Her coming out message went viral and was featured on NPR, the Huffington Post, and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. She took a huge risk coming out publicly back in the day — this was even before the days of Obergefell. As McBride’s parents noted in the opener, they thought her budding political career was terminated before it even started. How wrong they were…
Climbing the Ladder With A Powerful Political Patron
Rep. Sarah McBride speaking at the 2016 DNC in support of Hillary Clinton and LGBTQ+ rights.
One advantage of living in a small state is that once you make connections, everyone will know you. Rep. Sarah McBride started making connections early in her life by meeting her political idol.
In 2002, at 11 years old, she met then-Sen. Biden, her “political idol” and a fellow Delawarean, at a local pizzeria. Biden ripped a page from his daily briefing book, signed it and wrote, “Remember me when you are president,” McBride recalls in her book — for which Biden wrote the foreword — calling it her most prized possession as a kid.
She started working on political campaigns as a teenager, including Beau Biden’s 2006 and 2010 runs and the 2008 governor run of former Gov. Jack Markell.
By high school, she had worked on multiple campaigns, including that of Beau Biden, the president’s late son and former Delaware attorney general. “She combines a passion for public service with a great intellect, with extraordinary political judgment and messaging ability,” said Jack Markell, the U.S. ambassador to Italy, a former Delaware governor and McBride’s mentor.
How did her political hero react to her coming out? According to (future) President Biden, it fundamentally changed his view on people who are transgender. He would even go on to write the foreword of Sarah McBride’s memoir — Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality — when it was published in 2018.
But she had a lot of support. Not only from her family, but from another clan: the Bidens. After coming out, McBride got a call from Delaware’s Attorney General Beau Biden. She had worked for Biden during his 2006 and 2010 elections, back when she was known as “Tim.” “First he used my correct name and accurate pronouns and said, ‘Sarah, I just wanted you to know, I’m so proud of you. I love you, and you’re still a part of the Biden family,'” she says. She says the “cherry on top” came right before President Obama’s second inauguration, during an event at the Vice President’s home. “I went up to the Vice President to get a picture, and without saying anything, the Vice President saw me and he grabbed my arm and he said ‘Hey, kid, I just wanted to let you know I am so proud of you, and Beau is so proud of you, and Jill is so proud of you. And I’m so happy that you’re happy.’ And he gave me a big hug,” she says, adding that it was inspiring to see the Vice President, his family, and the Governor of Delaware embrace not only her, but also the broader transgender community. “I was afraid that all of the work that I had done in my life would be for naught and that these people who I had looked up to, the Vice President, the Attorney General of Delaware, the Governor of Delaware, that those people would say ‘You’re just too much of a liability. Being transgender is just too different for people to accept and do what you have to do, but we’re not going to be there for you, or at least we’re not going to be there for you in any public way,'” she says. “That was my fear and it has been the exact opposite.”
After college, Sarah McBride would intern at the White House in 2012, 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. The link is a video reflecting upon her time in the White House.
The next chapter of her life was spent on the Board of Directors of Equality Delaware. McBride challenged the Delaware legislature to pass protections for people who are transgender and it was a feather in her cap when the traditionally recalcitrant state senate passed a measure in support of her goals.
Governor Jack Markell signed the Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Act (SB 97) today, ensuring equal legal protections to transgender individuals in Delaware. The bill forbids discrimination against a person on the basis of gender identity and provides for increased punishment of a person who intentionally selects the victim of a crime because of the victim’s gender identity. Prior to its passage, it has been legal to fire someone, deny them housing, or throw them out of a restaurant simply because they are transgender. The changes established by the SB 97 afford transgender Delawareans the same legal protections already granted to everyone on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, among other characteristics. Nearly 200 Delaware businesses had signed a statement of support for the passage of the law. “I especially want to thank my friend Sarah McBride, an intelligent and talented Delawarean who happens to be transgender. She courageously stood before the General Assembly to describe her personal struggles with gender identity and communicate her desire to return home after her college graduation without fear. Her tireless advocacy for passage of this legislation has made a real difference for all transgender people in Delaware.”
By 2015, it was predicted that Sarah McBride would be the first person who was transgender to be elected to high public office.
Lesbian and gay politics advanced on the shoulders of courageous trailblazers like Harvey Milk, Barney Frank, and Chris Smith. Georgina Beyer allowed trans people to dream big dreams when she was elected the first transgender national parliamentarian in New Zealand in 1999. Who will be the first out transgender person elected to high office in America and Britain? Sarah McBride has all the right credentials in the United States—former student body president at American University, staffer for Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, White House intern, campaign director at the Center for American Progress. In Britain, it might take someone with an equally high profile, like Paris Lees, to break through the ceiling. But whoever does it, that ceiling needs to be shattered.
But first, McBride had to elevate her profile even more on the national stage. 2016 was a year of more firsts for her. She gave a Ted Talk on how gender assigned at birth should not define who we are.
Next, she was the first person who is transgender to speak at a major political convention when she addressed the DNC in 2016 about her role as press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign, LGBTQ+ rights, and about the legacy of her late husband — Andrew Cray.
It seemed like it was only a matter of time before Rep. Sarah McBride would be elected in Delaware. She made the long expected announcement that she was running for an open state senate seat on July 9, 2019.
Transgender activist Sarah McBride is seeking a seat in the Delaware state Senate next year. McBride hopes to succeed State Sen. Harris McDowell (D-North Wilmington), who is not running again after his term ends next year. McDowell will have represented the 1st District, which includes Wilmington, Claymont and Bellefonte, for 44 years by the end of 2019.
Sarah McBride: State Senator
Sarah McBride hugs her colleagues on the penultimate day of her last session in the Delaware legislature.
McBride campaigned on health care and paid family/medical leave during her first campaign for the Delaware State Senate. It was one of the first priorities the new legislature took up in 2021 (remember this was in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic).
For state Senator Sarah McBride, the quest to provide all Delaware workers with paid family and medical leave is personal. She saw the importance of paid leave policies when her then-future husband, Andrew, was diagnosed with cancer. "In order for him to survive, I had to be there by his side, helping him eat, bathe, dress his wounds, even helping him breathe," she said. "Then when he received the news that his cancer was terminal, paid leave policies allowed me to care for him in his final weeks...and marry him just a few days before he died...I was lucky to be able to be there with him and for him. So many Delawareans aren't as lucky." With too many Delawareans struggling to make ends meet while suffering through an illness or caring for a new child, McBride was moved to effect change. "The status quo is not only unsustainable, it is cruel," she said. Wednesday, May 5, she introduced Senate Bill 1, the Healthy Delaware Families Act which would provide up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to most Delaware workers. Workers would be eligible to receive up to 80% of their current wages or a maximum of $900 per week.
How was it like for McBride as a state senator? In the tight-knit community of Delaware, the atmosphere was much more collegial. She was a damn good state senator and her gender identity wasn’t an issue at all. She sought advice from nearly everyone regardless of ideology and political party.
Before working with McBride, Democratic state Sen. Elizabeth Lockman thought “she was probably a bit of a show pony, so good at presenting herself, public speaking,” and already destined for a larger stage. “Ok, she is the show pony, but can she be a work horse?” Lockman recalled thinking. “What I like to tell her is that she proved to us that she’s both. She’s probably one of the hardest-working people.” McBride rarely stops to eat on busy days, instead subsisting on a steady diet of coffee, heavy on the cream and sweetener. And nowhere is her boundless energy more evident than when she talks about the minutiae of policymaking. She likes kitchen table issues: health care, paid family leave, childcare and affordable housing. In the state Senate, she chaired the health committee and helped expand access to Medicaid and dental care for underserved communities. Most of her bills got bipartisan support. Pettyjohn, her Republican colleague, appreciated that McBride would often seek conservative members’ input on legislation. “She’s always one to come over, to make that effort to get outside that echo chamber and say, ‘What can we do to polish it up some, to make it better?’”
Before joining Congress, she joined MSNBC to comment on her trailblazing nature, attacks on her community, and her work in Delaware. Because of her, Delaware was the only state (mostly) immune from attacking people who are transgender while she served,
Her tenure in the state senate was shorter than expected because Sen. Tom Carper decided to retire in 2024. That led to a game of musical chairs where Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester ascended to the Senate and then Sarah McBride ran for the suddenly open House seat. She eventually cleared the field of major candidates which assured her of an easy primary and general election victory.
So What Has Congress Benn Like for Rep. Sarah McBride?
There have definitely been some bumps in the road for McBride. Having complete transphobes and bigots for colleagues doesn’t help. Her trailblazing nature makes her a lightning rod for controversy even if she is trying to keep her head down and get to work.
Speaking of work, Rep. Sarah McBride has been the primary sponsor of 3 pieces of legislation in the 119th Congress. She has written a FAIR Leave Act similar to the one she passed in Delaware. She has also written a SAVE Our Poultry Act and an ESCRA Act. She has also co-sponsored 165 other pieces of legislation running the gamut of issues. It doesn’t seem to matter who is the primary sponsor is ideologically either as she’ll work with the Squad and even the most bigoted members of Congress. She is a true work horse!
x 1/ The fight for fair leave is personal. I held my husband’s hand as he took his last breath. We were lucky to have the time for him to get care and for me to be by his side—but care shouldn't depend on luck.
[image or embed] — Congresswoman Sarah McBride (@mcbride.house.gov) May 14, 2025 at 8:11 PM
In terms of ideology, she’s actually one of the more cautious and moderate members of our caucus. Her DW Nominate score is -0.258, which pegs her as more liberal than 59% of the entire House of Representatives but more moderate than 82% of her colleagues. In business-friendly Delaware, this is about the norm for where representatives are in the caucus. According to Progressive Punch, McBride has earned an A- score which is solid but not spectacular in their view.
Rep. Sarah McBride was targeted in transphobic attacks twice in the 119th Congress. The first came from noted transphobe Rep. Nancy Mace who wanted the House rules changed to ban people who are transgender from using the restroom of their choice. The Speaker backed the measure which became a part of the rules.
Despite transgender activists wanting a fight, McBride chose not to press the issue, saying "I'm not here to fight about bathrooms, I'm here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families."
She espoused more about her tactics for dealing with the bigots in an NBC News interview shortly after the bathroom saga.
She said that throughout history, people who secure “firsts” — like her becoming the first openly trans member of Congress — have been required to “pick their battles” and fight smarter, not always harder. In this case, she believes civil disobedience doesn’t mean disobeying the policy and “claiming a toilet seat.” “The civil disobedience that is happening here is claiming a congressional seat in an institution that some people do not want me in simply because of who I am,” she said. “The disobedience is claiming that seat, and the civil part is taking the indignities that come with it with my chin up.” McBride said that her “turning the other cheek” might not be comforting in the moment, especially for trans people who fear the policies of the incoming Trump administration and want to see McBride fight back. However, she said, “it does not do the trans community any good for me to begin my career showing Republicans that they can bait me into getting the response that they want from me.” Despite the policy and Republicans’ focus on restricting trans rights, McBride said her colleagues, regardless of party, have been warm and welcoming and have said hello to her in the hallways.
The second and third incidents came from transphobic members misgendering McBride when referring to her. Both Rep. Mary Miller and Rep. Keith Self couldn’t give her the dignity of using her correct pronouns. The third incident actually shut down a committee hearing as fellow Rep. Bill Keating chastised the chair for misgendering McBride and threatened to walk out which would have denied a quorum.
McBride also had to respond to what she knew was eventually going to happen. She did it once again with dignity and grace.
Rep. Sarah McBride also has had to deal with a White House that wants to attack her very identity.
Despite all of the drama and pressure to be perfect, McBride has enjoyed most of her first term. I couldn’t find the actual radio interview with the Atlantic, but this transcript shows a reflective side of Rep. Sarah McBride. Here is an excerpt:
Rosin: Okay. A last thing: How have you learned to navigate Congress? The incidents we talked about were a couple of weeks ago. I’m really just curious—are there places you avoid, people you don’t get in the elevator with? I’m actually curious what your day-to-day life is. McBride: My strategy is not to let any of this get in the way of me doing my job to the best of my ability. Rosin: So you just, like, walk to your office, use the bathroom. McBride: I don’t avoid anyone. Well, listen—I don’t give them opportunities to punish me because I violate the rule that Johnson put in place. I use the restroom in my office. Rosin: Which she knew you would have. McBride: Yeah. I don’t go out of my way to aggravate things. But I just do my job. If they’re going to misgender me on the floor, look—a lot of folks, they’re like, Sarah doesn’t make a stink when we just say, Member from Delaware, Representative McBride. It’s a way to respect Sarah. And it doesn’t make them feel like they’re saying something that they don’t want to say or that they feel like they’d get politically punished by gendering me correctly. Like, fine. But there’s always a risk that someone wants to make a thing out of it. I’m not going to not go to committee. I’m going to go, and I’m going to speak. I’m not going to not go to the floor. I’m going to go to the floor and speak. And I’m not going to let them derail that work because they want 15 minutes of fame on social media.
Rep. Sarah McBride has been waiting for this chance nearly all of her life. She isn’t going to let the bigots and transphobes win by grinding her down and making her job miserable. The GOP would love nothing more than to throw the red flag her way and have her coming charging in like a bull in a china shop. That would get them the performative headlines they are after. Instead, she is hoping her solid work ethic and the chance to get to know her will win over even the worst haters in Congress.
New Faces in Congress is a diary series meant to highlight our new and diverse members of Congress in the Democratic Party. These 32 House freshmen range from political neophytes to seasoned legislative veterans. The series will run every Wednesday morning, at 8:00AM.
This is the first week of New Faces in Congress for the 119th Congress. Next week, I will cover Rep. Julie Johnson of Texas’ 32nd district. See you then!
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