Delaware makes history, elects Sarah McBride as 1st openly transgender member of Congress
DOVER, Del. (CBS/AP) — Delaware made history on election night as voters elected the state's first Black U.S. senator and the first openly trans person to serve in Congress.
CBS News projected Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride as the winner of the race for Delaware's single U.S. House seat Tuesday night. McBride is succeeding Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who was projected to have won her Senate race.
McBride easily defeated Republican John Whalen III on Tuesday. Whalen is a retired construction company owner and former state trooper who ran a shoestring campaign in his first bid for public office.
McBride, meanwhile, has established a national profile as an LGBTQ activist and raised more than $3 million in campaign contributions from around the country. She achieved national recognition at the 2016 Democratic National Convention as the first openly transgender person to address a major party convention in the United States.
"Tonight is a testament to Delawareans that we have shown time and time again that in this state of neighbors, we judge candidates based on their ideas and not their identities," McBride said.
"I didn't run to make history. I ran to make a difference for my state and this country," she added. "I think this is a powerful message that Delawareans are fair-minded and that our democracy is big enough for all of us."
Delaware voters know candidate's story
As a state senator, McBride has earned a reputation for working on health care issues, including successfully sponsoring legislation to create a statewide paid family and medical leave insurance program. McBride also sponsored legislation to address Medicaid reimbursement rates for home health care services and expand access to dental care for low-income Delawareans.
Another bill she sponsored imposed a 3.58% tax on net revenue of Delaware's hospitals as a way to leverage additional federal Medicaid funds. All those measures were enacted into law.
Voters also are familiar with McBride's personal story. She met her future husband, a trans man named Andrew Cray, at a White House reception during the Obama era. Cray died from cancer just four days after their wedding.
An expert told CBS News before Election Day that McBride is "tough" and could handle any attacks thrown her way. On the national level, Republican president-elect Donald Trump had brought transgender issues into the conversation, including a false assertion that schooolchildren were undergoing surgical procedures.
"I wouldn't be the first person in Congress to be part of a community that Donald Trump has said outrageous things about," McBride said then.
Democrats have held Delaware's U.S. House seat since 2010. The seat was left open last year after Blunt Rochester opted to run for the U.S. Senate spot being vacated by fellow Democrat Tom Carper.
