First-Ever Trans Woman Elected to Congress Celebrates Her Victory on MSNBC: ‘We All Have a Place In Our Country’
After former President Donald Trump won reelection in part because of an anti-trans ad that ran on heavy rotation in battleground states, the first openly trans member of Congress was elected in the state of Delaware.
Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride won her bid to represent Delaware’s at-large district against her Republican opponent, John Whalen. On Wednesday, she appeared on MSNBC with anchors Ana Cabrera and José Díaz-Balart to discuss her plans and how other people in the LGBTQ+ community should approach another four years of a Trump presidency:
CABRERA: On a personal level, what does this mean to you?
MCBRIDE: Well, I know how much this win would have meant to me as a young person as I faced a crisis of hope and wondered whether the heart of this nation was big enough to love me, too. And I hope this win sends a message to young people across the country that our democracy is big enough for them, too. That regardless of the results at the top of the ticket, we all have a place in our country. We all belong. And I hope it shows that nothing is truly impossible. But I didn’t run to make history. I ran to make a difference for my neighbors here in Delaware and to serve this country that I love.
On Trump’s victory:
CABRERA: With Trump elected to the White House now for a second term, his campaign, you’ll recall, repeatedly took aim at the LGBTQ+ community and trans rights. What’s your message to people who are genuinely worried about what their lives will look like under another Trump administration?
MCBRIDE: Look, this is a scary time. And I think for so many people across this country, so many vulnerable people, they are facing their own crisis of hope in this moment. But I know that the story of this country is the story of our biggest challenges propelling us to take our most significant steps forward. An advocate I once talked to described moments like this as slingshot moments where we are pulled backward. But the pressure of being pulled backward ultimately propels us to destinations that we’ve not yet been. And our challenge, our charge in this moment is to summon our hope, to summon our faith, and to remember that so long as we breathe, we hope. And together we can turn that hope into historic progress. It’s going to be hard. We’re going to face challenges. This new administration is dangerous and they will try to take back. But together, we are still unstoppable.
Watch the video above via MSNBC.
