DOVER, Del. (CBS/AP) – Delaware made history on election night when 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 Senator Sarah McBride the winner of the race for Delaware’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday evening. McBride succeeds Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who was expected 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 small campaign in his first bid for public office.
McBride, meanwhile, has built a national profile as an LGBTQ activist, raising more than $3 million in campaign contributions from across the country. She gained 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 the people of Delaware that we have shown time and time again that in this neighborly state, we judge candidates based on their ideas, not their identities,” McBride said.
Pamela Smith/AP
“I didn’t run away 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 and that our democracy is big enough for all of us.”
Delaware voters know the candidate’s story
As a state senator, McBride built a reputation for his work in health care, 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 Delaware hospitals’ net revenues as a way to mobilize additional federal Medicaid funds. All these measures have been converted into legislation.
Voters are also 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 of cancer just four days after their wedding.
One expert told CBS News before Election Day that McBride is “tough” and can handle any attack that comes her way. Nationally, Republican President-elect Donald Trump had brought transgender issues into the conversation, including the false claim that schoolchildren were undergoing surgical procedures.
“I wouldn’t be the first person in Congress who is part of a community that Donald Trump has said outrageous things about,” McBride said at the time.
Democrats have held the U.S. House of Representatives seat in Delaware since 2010. The seat was left open last year after Blunt Rochester chose to run for the U.S. Senate spot, which was vacated by fellow Democrat Tom Carper.
