莎拉·麦克布莱德习惯了做第一。她是第一个在白宫工作的公开变性者，第一个在民主党全国代表大会上发言的人，第一个在特拉华州成为州参议员的人。
如果她周一宣布的竞选活动成功，她将成为第一位在国会任职的跨性别者——代表特拉华州唯一的国会选区——也是第一位在联邦一级当选的公开跨性别者。
因为特拉华州的网络普通用户选区是坚定的民主党选区，这场竞争可能会在明年秋季的初选中结束。该席位目前由众议员丽莎·布朗特·罗切斯特(Lisa Blunt Rochester)担任，她上周宣布她将竞选美国参议员，以填补退休的汤姆·卡珀(Tom Carper)所占据的席位。
32岁的麦克布赖德获得了特拉华州高级议员的支持，LGBTQ倡导团体的支持，以及与拜登家族的关系。乔·拜登总统为她2018年的回忆录写了前言，她称他已故的儿子博为她的导师之一。
麦克布赖德说:“我对这场竞选充满信心和乐观，我们将在2024年9月(初选期间)赢得胜利，然后在2024年11月赢得胜利。”“我相信特拉华州已经准备好了。我们已经证明，小国也能办大事，现在是我们再次这样做的时候了。”
在她发起运动的那天，她告诉ABC新闻，她很乐意回答关于她的跨性别身份的问题。但是，她笑着说，作为一名民选官员，性别不是她的工作描述的核心，她也没有寻求成为“跨性别参议员”
“我的日常工作重点不是向人们解释性别认同，”她说。“我的日常工作重点是为我所服务的选民带来切实的成果。”
她说，麦克布赖德意识到，在跨性别官员人数不断增加的同时，跨性别候选人面临着对其候选人资格越来越多的审查。她也是在美国反LGBTQ极端主义兴起的时候参选的，根据最近的评估来自战略对话研究所、反诽谤联盟和GLAAD。
保守派议员支持一波与跨性别相关的限制在全国范围内，特别是围绕性别确认未成年人护理，许多共和党人说这是不恰当的。
麦克布莱德在这些趋势中看到了贯穿美国民权运动的一个主题，她说:“进步和痛苦的双重故事。”
“对我们国家的许多人来说，这绝对是一个艰难的时刻，包括跨性别者，”她说。“但正如以前的情况一样，只要我们鼓起必要的希望，坚持到底，我们就能把痛苦转化为进步。”
跨性别候选人的选举窗口扩大
当她在2021年成为州参议员时，麦克布莱德加入了所谓的“彩虹波”近几年就职的LGBTQ公职人员。根据倡导团体LGBTQ+ Victory Fund的数据，目前有57名现任美国当选官员公开变性或非双性恋，高于2019年的25名。
胜利基金的发言人艾伯特·藤井认为，随着LGBTQ问题变得越来越主流，候选人的酷儿身份可以成为一种资产。他指出，越来越多的跨性别和非二元选举官员证明，蓝区和紫区的选民认为这些候选人带来了重要的观点。
“成为LGBTQ+是一种优势，”藤井说。"他们不仅创下了跑步记录，而且还创下了获胜记录。"
民意调查似乎支持这一观点。2020年的盖洛普民意调查发现，约80%的美国人表示他们愿意投票给合格的同性恋候选人，高于2007年的55%。
但支持率在党派之间差异很大，根据，民主党人更有可能支持社会接受跨性别者皮尤研究中心数据从2021年开始。
在麦克布赖德的理想世界中，她的候选资格和其他身份“第一”不会是历史性的。
“最终，我们应该有一个不值得注意的世界，任何特定身份的人都能够充分参与我们的民主，包括竞选公职和获胜，”她说。
麦克布赖德的进步观
“我认为自己是一个特拉华人。我认为自己是一个实干家。我认为自己是一个坚信我们必须让政府更好地为人民服务的人，不仅因为他们需要政府，也因为这是拯救我们民主的唯一途径。
她还提到了自己在个人生活中作为照顾者的角色，告诉美国广播公司新闻，她帮助照顾她已故的丈夫安迪·克雷，他于2014年因癌症去世。
“是的，我认为自己是一个跨性别者。但这只是我的一个方面，”她说。
麦克布赖德希望她在这些问题上的记录能让她当选。虽然距离她的初选还有一年多的时间，但她已经成为一个强有力的竞争者，获得了一系列高调的支持，包括州司法部长凯西·詹宁斯(Kathy Jennings)和特拉华州立法机构——州参议院多数党领袖布莱恩·汤森(Bryan Townsend)和她14名民主党同事中的11名。
她还得到了人权运动的支持，她曾在人权运动中担任国家新闻秘书、LGBTQ+胜利基金和平等政治行动委员会的工作。
在这张2023年5月8日的资料照片中，州参议员莎拉·麦克布莱德(右)在新闻发布会上讲话。
Damian Giletto/特拉华州新闻杂志，通过《今日美国》网络，文件
另一名候选人亚历山大·盖兹已经提交了文件，准备在民主党初选中与麦克布莱德竞争。到目前为止，还没有共和党人宣布竞选该席位。
虽然麦克布赖德回避了关于民主党内具体政治标签的问题，但她在任期间表明了进步的诚意。她在通过全州家庭和医疗休假的法律以及禁止对跨性别者的住房歧视方面发挥了主导作用。
她在竞选活动中提出了一系列进步的优先事项，包括医疗保健、气候变化和枪支限制，尽管她没有直接回答关于全民医疗保险或应对气候变暖的“绿色新政”等提案的问题，但她说:“我将支持任何扩大医疗保健覆盖面的措施。我支持任何能够减少我们社会中气候变化威胁的措施。”
“选民是根据他们的想法而不是他们的身份来评判候选人的，”她说。“我认为这从根本上低估了特拉华州选民的价值，认为他们更关心我的性别，而不是谁将为他们投票。”
Sarah McBride could be 1st openly trans person in Congress, but her focus is on results for Delaware
Sarah McBrideis used to being first. She was the first openly transgender person to work in the White House, the first to speak at the Democratic National Convention and the first to become a state senator, in Delaware.
If the campaign she announced on Monday is successful, she will be the first transgender person to serve in Congress -- representing Delaware's sole congressional district -- and the first openly transgender person to be elected at the federal level.
Because Delaware's at-large district is solidly Democratic, competition in the race will likely play out during the primary next fall. The seat is currently held by Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who announced last week that she is running for the U.S. Senate to fill the seat held by retiring Tom Carper.
McBride, 32, enters the race with endorsements from high-ranking Delaware lawmakers, support from LGBTQ advocacy groups and relationships with the Biden family. President Joe Biden wrote the foreword to her 2018 memoir, and she has called his late son, Beau, one of her mentors.
"I'm incredibly confident and optimistic going into this campaign that we will win in September of 2024 [during the primary] and then win in November of 2024," McBride said. "I believe that Delaware is ready. We've shown that small states can do big things, and it's time for us to do that again."
On the day she launched her campaign, she told ABC News that she has been happy to answer questions about her trans identity. But, she said with a smile, gender is not at the core of her job description as an elected official and she didn't seek office to be "the trans senator."
"My day-to-day focus is not explaining gender identity to people," she said. "My day-to-day focus is delivering tangible results for the constituents that I serve."
McBride is aware that trans candidates face increased scrutiny of their electability at the same time that the number of trans officeholders is growing, she said. She's also running at a time of rising anti-LGBTQ extremism across the U.S.,according to recent assessmentsfrom the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the Anti-Defamation League and GLAAD.
Conservative lawmakershave backed a wave of trans-related restrictionsacross the country, particularly around gender-affirming care for minors, which many Republicans say is inappropriate.
McBride sees in these trends a theme that cuts across civil rights movements in the U.S., she said: the "dual story of progress and pain."
"This is absolutely a difficult moment for many in our country, including trans people," she said. "But as has been the case before, we can turn that pain into progress as long as we summon the hope necessary to see this fight through."
Electoral window widens for trans candidates
When she became a state senator in 2021, McBride joined theso-called "rainbow wave"of LGBTQ public officials who have taken office in recent years. There are currently 57 sitting U.S. elected officials who are openly transgender or nonbinary, up from 25 in 2019, according to the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, an advocacy group.
Albert Fujii, a spokesperson for the Victory Fund, believes that as LGBTQ issues have become more and more mainstream, a candidate's queer identity can be an asset. He pointed to the increasing number of trans and nonbinary elected officials as evidence that voters in blue and purple districts believe these candidates bring an important perspective to the table.
"Being LGBTQ+ is a strength," Fujii said. "Not only are they running in record numbers, but they're also winning in record numbers."
Polling appears to back this up. About eight in 10 Americans say they are willing to vote for a well-qualified gay or lesbian candidate, up from 55% in 2007, Gallup polling in 2020 found.
But favorability varies widely across partisan lines, with Democrats significantly more likely to support the social acceptance of transgender people, according toPew Research Center datafrom 2021.
In McBride's ideal world, her candidacy -- and other identity "firsts" -- wouldn't be historic.
"Ultimately, we should have a world where it's not noteworthy that a person of any particular identity is able to fully participate in our democracy, including running for office and winning," she said.
McBride's vision of progress
"I think of myself as a Delawarean. I think of myself as a doer. I think of myself as someone who believes very deeply that we have to make government work better for people, both because they need it and also because it's the only way to save our democracy," she said.
She also mentioned her role as a caregiver in her personal life, telling ABC News that she helped care for her late husband, Andy Cray, who died in 2014 from cancer.
"And yes, I think of myself as a trans person. But that is just one aspect of who I am," she said.
McBride expects her record on the issues is what would get her elected. Although there is more than a year until her primary, she has emerged as a strong contender in the race with a series of high-profile endorsements, including from state Attorney General Kathy Jennings and in the Delaware Legislature -- from state Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend and 11 of her 14 Democratic colleagues.
She is also backed by the Human Rights Campaign, where she previously worked as national press secretary, the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund and the Equality political action committee.
Another candidate, Alexander Geise, has filed paperwork to run against McBride in the Democratic primary. So far, no Republicans have announced a bid for the seat.
While McBride avoids questions about specific political labels within the Democratic Party, her time in office indicates progressive bona fides. She played a leading role in passing laws for statewide family and medical leave and to ban housing discrimination for trans people.
She has named a host of progressive priorities on the campaign trail -- including on health care, climate change and gun restrictions -- and though she did not directly respond to questions about proposals like Medicare for All or a "Green New Deal" to address the warming climate, she said: "I will support any measure that expands access to health care. And I support any measure that's going to reduce the threat of climate change in our society."
"Voters are judging candidates based on their ideas and not their identities," she said. "And I think it fundamentally undersells and undervalues Delaware voters to think that they care more about my gender than they do who's going to deliver for them."
