Sarah McBride has made history as the first transgender person elected to the US House of Representatives.
The Democrat was victorious on Tuesday (November 5) after winning the seat against the Republican Party's John Whalen in Delaware's election for the House of Representatives.
According to The Guardian, McBride defeated three other Democratic candidates in September’s primary race to secure her nomination and eventual win.
The politician took to her X (formerly Twitter) platform to express gratitude to everyone who voted for her.
“Thank you, Delaware! Because of your votes and your values, I am proud to be your next member of Congress,” McBride penned.
“Delaware has sent the message loud and clear that we must be a country that protects reproductive freedom, that guarantees paid leave and affordable child care for all our families, that ensures that housing and healthcare are available to everyone, and that this is a democracy that is big enough for all of us," she added.
McBride has become the first openly transgender person to not only serve as a state senator when elected to represent Delaware’s 1st Senate District in 2020 but to also be elected to the US House of Representatives.
“Tonight is a testament to Delawareans that here in our state of neighbors, we judge candidates based on their ideas and not their identities,” McBride said at Delaware’s Democratic election night celebration, per NBC News.
She thanked her loved ones and her late husband, Andy Cray, who sadly passed away of cancer in 2014, just days after their wedding.
“My time with Andy reinforced for me a simple truth, that hope as an emotion, hope as a phenomenon, only makes sense in the face of hardship,” she said. “While at this moment in America’s history, hope sometimes feels hard to come by, we must never forget that we are the beneficiaries of seemingly impossible change.”
In 2011, McBride came out as a trans woman in her university’s student paper and a viral Facebook post.
Before being elected to the State Senate, she worked for former Governor Jack Markell, Joe Biden, served in the Obama-Biden White House, and was the national spokesperson for the country's biggest LGBTQ equal rights organization the Human Rights Campaign.
Ahead of the election, McBride told Reuters: "Whenever you are first, you often have to try to be the best version that you can...But none of them matter if I don't fulfill the responsibility of just being the best member of Congress that I can be for Delaware."
She also addressed the transgender community, saying: "Anyone who worries that the heart of this country is not big enough to love them should know that they belong [...] Our democracy is big enough for all of us."
Congratulations!