In an election that saw Republicans secure the White House and both chambers of Congress, Sarah McBride’s congressional victory in Delaware provided a historic victory for Democrats, transgender representation – and young people.
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McBride, 34, won a seat in the House of Representatives representing Delaware and became the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, just four years after the Democrat was elected as the nation’s first transgender senator. McBride’s victory was groundbreaking in any year and especially in a year when conservatives regularly attacked the transgender community. McBride’s victory also marked a major victory for a multimillion-dollar campaign — launched by school shooting survivor David Hogg — to elect young lawmakers to state and national offices.
From Trauma to Rise: A Look Inside David Hogg’s $8 Million Bid to Elect Young Progressives
“From the youngest Senator ever to the first Trans member of Congress, Delaware knows what young leaders can achieve if given the chance, just look at Joe Biden,” Hogg posted on X, commenting on how the 81- year-old president was first elected to Congress in 1972, just days before his 30th birthday.
After surviving the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting that killed seventeen of his classmates and teachers, Hogg became a formidable newcomer to Democratic politics, turning his attention to helping elect Generation Z and the Millennium Democrats. His latest effort is Leaders We Deserve, a political action committee formed in 2023 that has raised nearly $8.5 million as of September to elevate the campaigns of McBride and a dozen other young candidates.
“Leaders We Deserve is proud to say that Sarah will be our first endorser elected to Congress,” Hogg wrote.
In addition to McBride’s high-profile victory, candidates backed by Hogg’s PAC saw mixed results — with more defeats than victories. Of the twelve candidates offered campaign money and boots-on-the-ground voter outreach by Leaders We Deserve, five won their races and seven lost.
They include the successful campaign of a seventh-grade math teacher in Atlanta, the defeat of a former Miss Texas who campaigned for a state House seat on a gun control platform, and the setback a 28-year-old mother faced when she launched her campaign. in the Tennessee House of Representatives after the state denied her access to abortion.
Leaders We Deserve has pumped millions of dollars — and resources from Democratic power players — into the campaigns of young candidates who support progressive causes such as gun control, reproductive rights and protecting public school funding. The PAC did not respond to requests for comment.
Other Leaders We Deserve-endorsed candidates who defeated their Republican opponents include Dante Pittman, whose election to the North Carolina General Assembly helped Democrats break a Republican supermajority. In Hogg’s home state of Florida, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost — who at age 27 became the first member of Gen Z to serve in Congress — won his reelection bid with nearly 62 percent of the vote.
In Georgia, high school math teacher Bryce Berry defeated an incumbent politician who switched from Democrat to Republican last year after withdrawing from party ranks to support vouchers for private schools. In Ohio, Democrat Christine Cockley easily defeated Republican rival Hussein Jabiri.
The seven candidates who failed to prevail include Kristian Carranza, whose campaign for a closely watched seat in the Texas House of Representatives raised more than $1 million in support from Leaders We Deserve before losing in a close race to Republican rival and incumbent state Rep. John Lujan. . In another competitive race in Texas, Republican Rep. Angie Chen Button won her ninth election to the Texas Legislature, defeating Democrat Averie Bishop.
In Pennsylvania, former teacher and longtime Republican state Rep. Joe Emrick won reelection, defeating Leaders We Deserve-backed Democrat Anna Thomas, whose campaign focused on strengthening school funding. Republican Mike Sparks, who has served in the Tennessee House of Representatives since 2010, defeated Democrat Luis Mata.
In another Tennessee House race, Republican Jeff Burkhart won re-election in a closely watched contest against Democrat Allie Phillips, who said she was forced to leave the state to terminate a non-viable pregnancy due to the strict Tennessee abortion laws. After defeating the Leaders We Deserve-backed Phillips, Burkhart said his campaign was about “fighting California, New York and everyone else.”
Nate Douglas, a 23-year-old University of Florida graduate, failed in his bid to unseat Republican Florida Rep. Susan Plasencia. The Douglas campaign relied heavily on student voting efforts.
In Georgia, Republican Senator Shawn Still was re-elected, defeating Democrat Ashwin Ramaswami by 7 percentage points. Ramaswami, 25, was still in law school when he decided to campaign against Still, who in 2023 was one of 18 people indicted along with newly elected President Donald Trump on charges of conspiring to overthrow Trump in the 2020 presidential election in the state to be undone.
After Trump regained control of the White House and Republicans won elected office in races across the country, Hogg turned to X to reiterate his argument that new, young voices are more critical than ever.
“Time for some big changes within the Democratic Party,” he wrote.
