Sarah McBride ‘not running to be the trans representative in Congress’
Sarah McBride is running for Delaware’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. If you ask her what the most important issues are for voters, she’ll tick off several things: The cost of education, prescription drugs, housing, fear of gun violence, fear of the Supreme Court, the wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation across the nation.
What’s not among them? Her gender identity – the fact that she’s transgender. But we journalists mention it at every turn – you’d be forgiven for wondering whether we know anything else about her.
Even at MSNBC, the cozy cable home for liberals, her identity takes center stage. “Sarah McBride campaigns to be first openly transgender member of Congress,” the lower third blares during McBride’s July 15 MSNBC interview. “McBride on historic run for Congress,” another says. “McBride would be the first transgender member of Congress if elected,” a third reads.
And every time her interviewer mentions it, she notes something along the lines of what she told MSNBC anchor Katie Phang: “I’m not running to be the transgender representative in Congress, I’m running to serve Delaware and to make progress on all the issues that matter.”It begins to resemble a tango – only where the two dancers are dancing to two completely different songs.
