Newark, Delaware, US

For the first ever time, the US House of Representatives will welcome its very first openly transgender member as Democrat Sarah McBride won the election from Delaware on Tuesday (Nov 5). 

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McBride, 34, became the first openly transgender person to serve as a state senator when she was elected in 2020, the first to speak at a US national political party convention in 2016, and also the first to intern at the White House in 2012, under former President Barack Obama.

Ahead of her election, McBride said she would focus instead on the issues she would prioritise, rather than the history-making nature of her candidacy.

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"Whenever you are first, you often have to try to be the best version that you can," she said in an interview with news agency Reuters.

"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 said.

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Who is Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender person elected to Congress?

Sarah Elizabeth McBride has been a Democratic member of the Delaware Senate since January 2021. She was previously the national press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign.

She won in the November 2020 election in the 1st Delaware State Senate district. As the first openly transgender state senator in the country, she is the highest-ranking transgender elected official in the history of the United States.

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The Democratic state Senator from Delaware defeated Republican rival John Whalen III. She won 57.8 per cent of the vote when 95 per cent of the total ballot was counted.

In April 2012, McBride came out as transgender in the student newspaper of American University. McBride’s late husband, Andy Cray, died of cancer in 2014, a few days after they tied the knot. 

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During her campaign, McBride advocated for affordable health care, protection of reproductive rights and a hike in wages.

Asked what message young transgender Americans should take from her expected election, McBride said, "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."

(With inputs from agencies)