Sarah McBride is the first transgender woman to be elected into the US Congress.

McBride is a Delaware state senator who beat John Whalen III, the Republican candidate, to win Delaware’s one and only seat in Congress.

“Thank you, Delaware! “I am proud to serve as your next Member of Congress because of your votes and values,” she wrote in a post on X.

McBride, a member of the LGBTQ community, told CBS in the US: “I believe that people know that I personally care about equality.” “But I’m going to prioritize affordable child care and paid family leave, housing, health insurance, reproductive freedom, and reproductive rights.”

McBride (34), entered politics in 2006, when she worked for Beau Biden, the late son of Joe Biden, who ran for Delaware Attorney General.

She had the support of her younger brother, Joe Biden, when she spoke out in 2013 in Delaware against discrimination based on gender identity.

She also helped shape Biden’s support of LGBTQ rights. Later, he wrote the preface to her memoir Tomorrow Will Be Different.

McBride was born and raised in Wilmington. She came out at age 21 as a woman who is transgender in the student newspaper of her university and in a viral Facebook post.

In 2014, her husband Andrew Cray – a transgender activist and fellow man – died from cancer just days after they were married.

McBride is the first transgender intern to work at the White House. She was also the first person to address a national convention of a political party and, in 2020, she will be the first person to address a state senate.

She has worked previously as the press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign (the largest LGBTQ advocacy group of the US).

McBride is a proponent of gun reforms, has worked to expand access to affordable healthcare and supports anti-discrimination laws in Delaware that protect trans people.

She told Reuters that she wanted to focus on the issues and the changes she would like to see, not the historical nature of her campaign.

She said that she felt “added responsibility” when she was first.

“But none matter if I do not fulfill the responsibility to be the best possible member of Congress for Delaware.”

Her election coincides with a focus on transgender issues by Republicans, many of whom will be her future colleagues in Congress. They have sought to prohibit minors from undergoing gender-confirmation surgeries and to exclude transgender athletes who compete in binary sports categories.

Donald Trump claimed that the public schools force children to undergo gender transformation. This claim was false.

JD Vance – his running mate and future Vice-President – suggested recently, without any evidence, that upper-middle-class white Americans view transgender as a way to improve their children’s chances at getting into top universities.

The Trump campaign spent more money on transgender issues in the final days of the election than any other topic.

Nearly half the US states now prohibit gender affirming care for minors, or ban transgender women in female sports leagues. Six Republican governors, however, have blocked these restrictions due to concerns over government overreach.