“Our best days are ahead”: Trans congressional candidate Sarah McBride still believes in America

In June, 32-year-old Sarah McBride declared her candidacy for deep-blue Delaware’s at-large seat in the US House Representatives, virtually assuring her place in history as the first transgender person to be elected to the United States Congress.

McBride, a Democrat, currently represents Delaware’s 1st District as State Senator. She’s running to replace Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester, who recently declared a campaign for Senate.

Related:

Sarah McBride is raking in campaign cash just days after announcing run for Congress

She said that her being transgender means she knows “what it’s like to feel like your government doesn’t have your back.”

McBride made national headlines in 2012 when she finished her term as president of the student government at American University in Washington DC with an eloquent message to the school community declaring she was transgender.

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In the interim, she became the first openly trans person to intern at the White House, worked with the Center for American Progress, helped pass Delaware’s gender-identity anti-discrimination legislation, was the first openly trans person to speak at a national political convention (the Democrats’ conclave in 2016 in Philadelphia), wrote a memoir, and served as the National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign – all before she turned 30.

She’s currently the highest-ranking elected trans official in the United States.

In 2014, McBride married trans LGBTQ+ activist Andrew Cray, who died just days after their wedding from cancer.

Amid a hectic schedule following her campaign announcement on June 26, McBride was cheery when we spoke on Monday. It could have been the coffee, for which she declared her love in the video announcing her candidacy.  

I’m excited to share that I'm running for Congress!

In Delaware, we’ve proven that small states can do BIG things. It’s time to do it again. 🧵

Become a founding donor » https://t.co/Dnj3FKQG4l pic.twitter.com/UD1DkxBaNy

— Sen. Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) June 26, 2023

LGBTQ Nation: Where did I find you today?

Sarah McBride: I’m in Wilmington, actually, just outside of a wonderful local coffee shop, Brew HaHa!, in the area that we call Trolley Square. As you probably know from my announcement video, I love coffee. Brew HaHa! was actually a major small business supporter of my paid family and medical leave law. So in addition to loving their coffee, I always try to give my business to the local coffee spot.

LGBTQ Nation: When you ran for Delaware State Senate, you said your focus in Wilmington would be on health care and paid family and medical leave, and you got the Healthy Delaware Families Act passed. What’s going to be your primary goal representing Delaware in Washington if you’re elected to Congress?

SM: By passing paid family medical leave in Delaware, we defied the expectations. We defied what cynical political observers thought was possible. And in so doing passed the most significant new employment benefit in modern state history. So now I’m running for Congress to build on the progress that I’ve been able to help deliver in the Delaware General Assembly, because ultimately what I have seen is that to fully address the needs of workers and families throughout the state of Delaware, we need federal action and federal investment.

So I’m running to guarantee affordable early childhood education to every family here in Delaware. I’m running to build off of our progress on paid family and medical leave to ensure through federal investments the most robust and universal policy possible. I’m running to expand access to health care, something that’s deeply personal to me after my experience with my husband Andy during his battle with terminal cancer. I’m running to pass common-sense gun violence prevention measures, because while we have passed legislation like our assault weapons ban here in Delaware, in a small state, to truly combat gun violence, we need federal action. So I’m running to pass legislation like an assault weapons ban in Congress.

And finally, while we have codified the right to choose under state law and expanded access to abortion-related care in our state, we know all of that is at risk without clear nationwide protections for the right to choose under federal law. So those will be some of my priorities in Congress should I have the privilege of serving Delaware.

Because of so many Delawareans demanding action, we passed the largest gun safety package in state history in 2022.

To truly protect our neighbors – especially in small states like DE – we need federal action to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. https://t.co/VnEJNDiwi6

— Sen. Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) July 11, 2023

LGBTQ Nation: Where does the Equality Act fit into your agenda?

SM: I was really, really honored to be around the table as the progressive movement was working across our coalition to craft the Equality Act, and I was thrilled to be there in the US Capitol on the day that it was formally introduced, and then, ultimately, to be in the House gallery when the House of Representatives passed it in 2019. So that’ll certainly be a bill that I’m eager to co-sponsor as quickly as possible.

LGBTQ Nation: What sparked your interest in politics?

SM: My interest in politics, in many ways, stems from my own journey as an LGBTQ person, as a kid realizing who I am, and then beginning to understand that this world wasn’t quite built for someone like me to live openly and authentically. I found hope in politics.

LGBTQ Nation: Your first foray into political work was as an intern on Beau Biden’s first run for Delaware Attorney General. And you worked on his second campaign, as well, and interned at the White House while Joe Biden was vice president — he wrote the foreword for your book. How important has the Biden family been in shaping your political outlook, and how important have you been in shaping President Biden’s?

SM: Working for Beau Biden was one of the professional privileges of my life. Beau was the real deal. He was kind and decent, thoughtful, and compassionate. He was someone who opened doors for me as a young person wanting to get involved in politics, mentoring me, helping to guide me, providing the opportunities to get involved, and ultimately working for him, and then, eventually, after I came out, putting the full force of his office behind the Gender Identity Non-Discrimination Act of 2013, which is a law that helped make Delaware safer for trans people like me to live and work, and that would not have passed if not for Beau Biden’s support and advocacy.

After Beau passed away, my relationship with his father grew deeper. In many ways, this president has picked up Beau’s legacy to carry it forward. I think he feels closer to his son in continuing his son’s work. And we also, of course, have bonded over our mutual love for Beau and the shared losses that both of us have experienced in our lives. I would never claim credit for this president’s support for trans rights, as I think some have characterized our relationship. This president has a big heart, and that’s what leads him to support trans rights and LGBTQ equality writ large. And I’m proud to call him a friend and an ally.

LGBTQ Nation: Last week, you told voters, “You don’t have to understand me for me to fight for you.” On its face, that’s a fact. But would you fault voters for thinking, 1) “I want to understand the people I’m putting my trust in to represent me in Congress,” and 2) “Is she saying that her personal life is really none of my business?”

SM: Well, I think first off, I think that none of us know exactly what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes. I just think that’s a fact. And I think voters want to understand what’s in a candidate’s heart. And that, I think, is a commonality that all of us have, to want to understand what’s in someone else’s heart. And what I think all — what I think so many of us in our society share is the desire to be seen in our dignity and our work and to never feel excluded from our family of neighbors. And that is an experience that I share with so many people.

You don’t have to be LGBTQ to know what it feels like to be unseen and unheard. That is a commonality among so many people across our country. And that, for me, is at the heart of why I run and why I ran for office: to help our state of neighbors more fully live up to our values, and to broaden every circle of opportunity for everyone of every background.

“You don’t have to understand me for me to fight for you”
State Sen. Sarah McBride (D) joins @jaketapper to discuss her bid for Delaware’s at-large seat, a race that would make her the country’s first out transgender member of Congress, should she win. Watch: pic.twitter.com/snuvFPHERd

— CNN (@CNN) July 5, 2023

LGBTQ Nation: How do you identify and what’s your sexual orientation?

SM: I identify as a queer transgender woman. But I also identify as a Delawarean, as a person who’s been a caregiver, as a policy wonk, as a Wilmingtonian who desperately wants to see every community in our state thrive. But I am a proud queer transgender woman.

LGBTQ Nation: Are you seeing anyone now?

SM: (Laughing) Ah, good question. You know, I, I… (Laughing) No comment.

LGBTQ Nation: You say you’re not running to be “the LGBTQ member of Congress from Delaware,” or “the first transgender member of Congress.” But history has a way of deciding how everyone is remembered. Barack Obama will always be remembered as the first Black President of the United States, and both he and the First Lady have said that that fact did influence how they treated their time in the White House. Have you thought about how your own history-making role would affect your priorities and your time in office if you make it to Congress?

SM: Sure. I mean, look, the reality is that every member of Congress is a collection of their experiences and their background. And I am proud of who I am, and I’m proud of the perspective that I would bring to the table. I’m conscious of the uniqueness that my voice and my perspective would bring to the halls of Congress. That’s not lost on me, and that is important. Because diversity in government is not a luxury; it is a necessity, both because you cannot have a democracy of the people, by the people and for all the people if it doesn’t include all of the people, and because you can’t craft effective solutions for a diverse country if you don’t have the full diversity of that country up the chain.

But I also think that there are few things more powerful in combating the anti-trans politics that we’re seeing from our right-wing politicians than helping to diversify the perspective and perception of who transgender people are in our society. I think that there’s a cultural change that comes from having an out transgender member of Congress who’s focused on all of the issues that matter to people of every background. And of course, that includes LGBTQ people. And of course, I will passionately and steadfastly fight for LGBTQ rights, both as an LGBTQ person, but also as a member of Congress from Delaware who represents LGBTQ people within this state.

But also I will be fighting for all of these other issues that I mentioned, and I think that seeing someone who’s advocating on a whole host of issues that matter to people of every background and actually delivering will help to reinforce, for the broader public, that trans people are part of the rich fabric of this country and have something to offer.

"[Republicans in Congress] should have to work with me, and spend time with me, and be in spaces with me so that they can feel bad about what they're doing." —DE House Candidate @SarahEMcBride on the importance of having an openly transgender member of Congress pic.twitter.com/elNcN64LmV

— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) July 11, 2023

LGBTQ Nation: What do you think accounts for the wave of anti-trans legislation in red states we’ve seen over the last two years?

SM: Well, I think the attacks that we’re seeing right now by far-right-wing politicians are an effort by those politicians to distract from the fact that they have absolutely no policy agenda for workers and families in this country. It’s an effort to distract from the policy failures of the Republican Party over the last several decades.

But that’s not a new strategy by right-wing politicians in our country. Throughout history, they have sought to divide and conquer. They have sought to pick scapegoats and to fear-monger. They have targeted different communities throughout successive generations, and right now they’re targeting trans people.

But ultimately, I think these attacks ring hollow with voters. They don’t speak to what voters are actually worried about. They don’t speak to what’s keeping people up at night here in Delaware or across the country. I think because of that, we see that these attacks — they might help to drum up some passion within a portion of the ever-shrinking Republican base, but they aren’t effective electorally. 2022 proved that, and I believe 2024 will prove that again.

LGBTQ Nation: Is America really going to hell like Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert would all have us believe?

SM: I truly believe that our best days are ahead of us as a country, particularly if we accept and embrace the strengths of this nation, which includes our diversity.

For the issues that matter to Delawareans, we need federal action and federal investment to protect our rights and to meet the needs of workers and families. pic.twitter.com/vkIGUyYnOo

— Sen. Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) July 9, 2023

LGBTQ Nation: Last question: In my research, I came across your old LinkedIn profile from your time in high school and college.

SM: Oh, wow.

LGBTQ Nation: I imagine you’re aware that’s still up.

SM: I don’t think I realized that. (Laughing) I don’t even know what the login is.

LGBTQ Nation: Well, it struck me as an interesting kind of online memorial to an earlier you. Trans people handle their identities in different ways. As you said in your coming out message, “Everyone’s path winds in different ways.”

SM: Umm hmm.

LGBTQ Nation: What’s your relationship with that kid in high school?

SM: Hmmm. Good question. You know, a lot of times we see anti-trans activists and anti-trans trolls seek to utilize old pictures, or, you know, the names we were given at birth in an attempt to bully, and it can cause real harm to people. But I’ve faced that kind of harassment for too long and developed too thick of a skin for it to bother me.

And ultimately, you know, when I think back to that young version of myself, I think about how scared I was. I think about how convinced I was that my dreams and my identity were mutually exclusive. I wish I could go back to tell that young person, You’re going to be okay, and, It’s going to be okay. You’ll face your challenges. It won’t always be easy. But in accepting and embracing who you are, you’ll find that nothing is impossible. And you will witness acts of grace and hope and kindness that you will cherish for the rest of your life. The rest of your life.

I’ve been thinking about that young person quite a bit over the last few weeks and, you know, it’s only further reinforced for me the importance that this campaign has for young people right now, who are seeing a barrage of negativity and negative attacks. And how hopefully in 2024 we can send them a small glimmer of hope and demonstrate that the heart of this country is big enough to love them, too.