Congress prepared to welcome first transgender member. Meet Sarah McBride

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It’s all too easy to dismiss the political influence of LGBTQ Americans based solely on how well they found support in office. After all, only a quarter of 1% of elected officials in the United States identify as part of the community. And that is after so called Rainbow Wave elections from recent cycles.

But a huge glass ceiling is closer to breaking. Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride moved one step closer this week to becoming the first transgender member of Congress after Eugene Young, her most credible opponent in September’s Democratic primary, ended his campaign on Wednesday. While others have until next month to enter the race, it is increasingly clear that the field is clear for McBride to make history in a seat where Democrats hold a double-digit lead in voter registration.

“I’m not running to be known for my identity,” McBride tells TIME. “I’m running to help Delaware families see results, and my record speaks for itself.”

McBride already holds the title of the country’s highest-ranking elected transgender politician as a state senator, just the latest in a resume full of firsts. That may make it easy to overlook what appears to be her next historic moment in November, as well as the political acumen that got her here. Both would be a mistake. McBride was the first openly trans person to work in the White House during the Obama administration and was the first trans person to speak at a party’s nominating convention when Hillary Clinton accepted the nomination in 2016. Joe Biden wrote the foreword to his 2018 memoir . McBride stood out again in 2020 as the first trans person elected to the Senate from any state. (Danica Roem in Virginia was the first trans person elected to a state legislature with his 2017 bid for the state House of Delegates and followed last year with a victory in the state Senate.) McBride rallied his state’s largest unions and the state Chamber of Commerce to support a paid family leave bill and has been one of the best advocates against gun violence at the state level in anywhere on the map.

And barring some unforeseen complications heading into Election Day in November, she will immediately become one of the most visible freshmen in Congress, whose single vote will carry far more weight than the majority.

“We hope this helps humanize a community that has long been marginalized,” she said by phone Thursday, a day after Young’s decision made her return to Washington more likely. It is a responsibility that she does not take lightly in a body currently led by a President who has criticized against “radical gender ideology” and members like Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who once posted an anti-transgender sign outside his office, which was opposite the office of a member with a transgender child.

“[Republicans] We have absolutely no political solution to the problems this country faces and we seek to distract with manufactured culture wars,” McBride tells me. “It’s critical that we have members of the affected community at the table.”

Nobody lost their cash advantage. McBride ended March with $1.9 million in her campaign account, while Young had about $400,000. Labor groups, Democratic groups and local elected leaders rallied behind her to lend her support and contacts. The network of LGBTQ donors has opened up widely and often to her, which is no surprise given her years of work in her networks and those of allies. (Young, the former director of the Delaware State Housing Authority, had the support of Governor John Carney and would have been the first black person to represent Delaware in Congress.) It was also increasingly clear that, if necessary, Biden’s political machine could be called upon; McBride worked about the campaign of the late Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden and Joe Biden credits McBride for his advancement in LGBTQ rights.

This goes along with other LGBTQ strengths. So called “pink money” flowed almost exclusively to Democratic candidates for decades, and deep-pocketed donors quietly fueled elections during the 1980s and 1990s but are now among the loudest champions of pro-equality candidates. Groups like the Victory Fund and the Human Rights Campaign have robust political operations that, in addition to PAC endorsements and donations, help garner millions of dollars in direct donations to chosen candidates. One of the most coveted introductions in politics is a trusted source telling their like-minded friends about the campaign of a newcomer like McBride or hundreds of other LGBTQ candidates. running in lesser-known races.

And although the number of LGBTQ elected officials nationwide is just 1,300, it’s still a huge leap from where the century began. The countdown, from the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute’s annual Out For America event survey, includes 12 members of Congress, three governors and 62 mayors. But the numbers show a pronounced lag on trans policies, which is not surprising given that voters within the LGBTQ coalition often face the steepest rises and more severe opposition from critics. And even if she wins this fall, a trans voice among the House’s 435 voting members is a step toward representation, but it’s a small step that comes too late for the estimated 1.6 million Americans over the age of 13 who identify as transgender.

Delaware’s only seat in the U.S. House is open because its holder, Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester, is seeking the Senate seat with the retirement by Senator Tom Carper. Blunt Rochester would also make history as the first woman and first person of color to represent Delaware in the Senate. (She is also a former Carper intern.)

Democrats are expected to hold both seats in a state that last elected a Republican to the House in 2008 and the Senate in 1994. Republicans are not seriously targeting the seats and are instead trying to save its own threatened incumbents who face the difficult task. to defend the narrowest majority in the Chamber on a ticket with former President Donald Trump as the main attraction. The path to the gavels in either chamber does not go through Delaware.

Oh, and for good measure, Blunt Rochester on Thursday — in a TIME exclusive — endorsed McBride to replace her. “As a congresswoman from Delaware, I know what it takes to deliver for our state and that Sarah will begin work as our state’s only member in the U.S. House,” Blunt Rochester plans to say in a statement later in the day.

McBride is careful not to interpret the news as a premature victory. But she is not unaware of what her arrival signals for Washington and beyond. “I will continue to work with all my heart and not take anything for granted,” she says. Democrats are counting on it, and betting that their diligence will help them hold on to a seat that is part of their cornerstone for a potential majority early next year.

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