Trans State Senate Hopeful Wins Primary in Delaware
HRC spox, once a lighting rod for transphobes, wins over voters in heavily Dem district
BY MATT TRACY
Sarah McBride, an out
transgender spokesperson
for the Human Rights
Campaign, easily won
her Democratic primary race for
State Senate in Delaware on September
15, marking a major step
in her quest to become the highest
ranking out trans lawmaker in
the nation and the fi rst out trans
elected offi cial in her state.
McBride crushed her opponent,
Joseph McCole, 91.3 percent to 8.7
percent in the state’s State Senate
District One, which includes the
city of Wilmington. As of September
16, McBride tallied 7,902 votes,
while McCole only had 752 votes.
Those numbers included mail-in
and absentee ballots.
McBride, 30, declared victory
shortly after 9 p.m. on election
night when she wrote a celebratory
post on Twitter.
“We are proving what is possible
when neighbors come together,”
McBride wrote in a tweet. “This
victory is not mine. It belongs to so
many — our grassroots volunteers
and donors, our cheerleaders and
supporters. I am beyond proud. I
am beyond grateful.”
The victory for McBride in the
open primary competition was also
signifi cant because she is expected
to have a major advantage in the
general election in a district where
outgoing Democratic State Senator
Harris B. McDowell III has held his
seat for more than four decades.
McBride is slated to face off in
the general election against Steve
Washington, a Democrat-turned-
Republican who ran as an independent
candidate for mayor in
Wilmington in 2016. He fi nished in
third place in the general election
that year, landing seven percent of
the vote.
McBride, HRC’s national press
secretary, drew national attention
in 2016 when she delivered a
speech at the Democratic National
Convention. She has long-established
ties to Democratic political
circles, having worked on the late
Beau Biden’s successful campaign
Out transgender Delaware State Senate hopeful Sarah McBride, speaking at the 2016 Democratic
National Convention, is on the verge of making history after winning her primary race on September 15.
for state attorney general in Delaware
in 2010 and subsequently
serving as a White House intern
in the Obama administration. She
eventually became a lobbyist focused
on advancing LGBTQ rights
legislation, fi rst in her home state.
On her campaign website,
McBride expressed support for increasing
the minimum wage, banning
employers from asking job
applicants about criminal records,
and banning assault weapons and
high-capacity magazines, but she
appears to take a more incremental
approach to a range of other
issues. She is calling for more “access”
to “affordable” early childhood
education programs and is
supportive of “expanding access”
to healthcare and lowering insurance
costs.
Following the election, McBride’s
employer celebrated the historic
nature of her victory.
“Next year, as the fi rst transgender
state senator in our nation,
Sarah will show that any child
can achieve their dream, no matter
their gender identity or sexual
orientation,” HRC’s president, Alphonso
David, said in a written
statement.
McBride has endured transphobic
attacks in recent years that
have been largely driven by transexclusionary
radical feminists,
or TERFs. Posie Parker and Julia
Long, a pair of women associated
with that group from Britain,
barged into one of McBride’s meetings
in January of last year and
proceeded to harass her, misgender
REUTERS/ MIKE SEGAR
her, and hold a camera in her
face while they verbally attacked
her.
The two women peddled false
transphobic narratives that
mocked the ongoing effort to allow
transgender prisoners to be
housed in accordance with their
gender identity.
POLITICS
“Why are you championing the
rights of men to access women in
women’s prisons?” Long asked
McBrie in that video-recorded
scene. “And rape and sexually assault
them as recently happened
in the United Kingdom?”
If she is victorious in the general
election for State Senate, McBride
will join a handful of other out
trans legislators, including Colorado
Representative Brianna Titone,
New Hampshire State Representatives
Gerri Cannon and Lisa Bunker,
and Virginia State Delegate
Danica Roem, who is the fi rst out
trans person to be elected to a state
legislature in the US. Transgender
candidates have also made headway
in local governments. In 2017,
two Black transgender candidates
— Phillipe Cunningham and Andrea
Jenkins — won election to
the 13-member Minneapolis City
Council.
This is your city.
Do you know your zone?
Visit NYC.gov/knowyourzone or call 311
to find out what to do to prepare for
hurricanes in NYC . #knowyourzone
GayCityNews.com | September 24 - October 7, 2020 9
/knowyourzone
/GayCityNews.com
