Sarah McBride is running to become the first trans member of the House

It’s a typical election year scene: Congressional candidates working the crowd at a college football game. But Sarah McBride’s simple act of shaking hands at Delaware State University could lead to a turning point in American history. If elected, he will be the first trans member of the US House of Representatives.

Asked what it means to him, McBride replied, “This is proof to Delawareans that the candidacy of someone like me is possible.”

When “Sunday Morning” first met McBride during the pandemicshe has made history as the first transgender person elected to the state senate, becoming America’s highest-ranking transgender elected official. Now, at 34, with nearly two terms under her belt, she’s running for higher office, but says it’s not about her identity as a trans woman:

“I think people know that I’m personally invested in equality as an LGBTQ person,” he said. “But my priorities are affordable child care, paid family and medical leave, housing, health care, reproductive freedom.”

His Republican opponent in the Congressional race is former Delaware State Police officer John Whalen III. His top priorities are ending illegal immigration and reducing the federal debt. She did not want to do an interview for this story, but during a brief phone conversation, when asked if McBride being a trans woman would be a factor in the race, she said, “There are more important things than that.”

Professor Danna Young, director of the Center for Political Communication at the University of Delaware, agrees. “I think voters really want to hear about other issues,” he said.

In 2018, Young authored a study on attitudes toward transgender candidates. “We ask people if they are willing to support a transgender candidate if the candidate is from their own party,” said Young. “And the results show that there is not much support for transgender candidates.”

But now, they’re questioning whether the study should be done now, especially since it doesn’t relate to specific transgender candidates like Sarah McBride. “People know him now, especially in small states,” Young said.

By now, Delaware voters are familiar with McBride’s story, including how she met her future husband, a trans man named Andrew Cray, at an Obama-era White House reception. “Andy is the kindest, funniest, smartest person I know,” McBride said.

Cray would die of cancer just four days after their wedding.

Professor Young said everything that Sarah McBride has strengthened: “He is tough. I am not worried about the ability to take any attack that is likely to come at the national level,” said Young.

But at the national level, the Republican presidential candidate made the transgender issue front and center, for example, by falsely claiming that school children undergo surgical procedures: “The transgender thing is extraordinary … Your child goes to school, and comes home. a few days after surgery,” Donald Trump recently told the conservative group Moms for Liberty.

McBride said, “I will not be the first person in Congress to be part of the community that Donald Trump has spoken about outrageous.”

Asked how he could get along with other members of Congress who are against trans people, McBride said, “I think the real catch on this is, the people who are professional provocateurs? They’re not going to work together. any Democrats. He can hardly work with his own Republican colleagues.

A recent poll by the University of Delaware has McBride leading in this heavily Democratic state by more than 20 points. And if he’s elected, McBride believes he won’t be the last trans member of Congress:

“We know throughout history that the power of proximity has opened even the most closed hearts and minds,” he said. “And I still believe that the power of distance taps into what I believe is the most basic human emotion, empathy. ”

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Story produced by Robert Marston. Editor: George Pozderec.