Delaware elects first openly trans state senator in the United States

Delaware has elected the United State's first openly transgender state senator. Sarah McBride beat out Republican Steve Washington to take over the seat of fellow Democrat Harris McDowell, who has stood down. McBride's win will see her become the highest-ranking trans official in the country.

"We did it," McBride wrote in a tweet after her victory. "We won the general election. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too. As Delaware continues to face the Covid crisis, it’s time to get to work to invest in the policies that will make a difference for working families."

"I am hopeful that tonight's result can send a potentially lifesaving message to a young trans kid," McBride told Buzzfeed News after her win. "They can go to sleep knowing that their dreams and their truths are not mutually exclusive."

"I spent my entire life feeling like tonight was so incomprehensible that it was seemingly impossible," she said. "To have those results come in and see in black and white online the AP call it ... helped to reinforce that nothing is truly impossible."

"I know how much of a difference it would have made for me as a young person struggling for my place in the world. Growing up, there was no example of something like this."

McBride says that she hopes to become "the healthcare senator and the paid-leave senator."

McBride is pushing to reform healthcare after her husband, Andy, died from cancer when she was just 24. She recalled memories of her husband crying because of all the things he would miss and "the fact that he wouldn't be able to tell me he loved me and was proud of me."

"Because it was so sad, it’s seared in my memory," said McBride. "This evening I can hear Andy’s voice saying, 'I love you and I'm proud of you.'"