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Representative-elect McBride stated in response to the question on trans people and Democratic losses, "The party that was focused on culture wars and trans people was the Republican Party."
In the aftermath of the 2024 election results, a handful of political pundits and two Democratic members of Congress have pointed fingers at transgender people, blaming them for Kamala Harris’s loss in the presidential race. While few voices are echoing these claims, prominent publications like The Atlantic and The New York Times have amplified these sentiments to millions of readers, despite limited evidence linking transgender issues to Democratic losses. Now, Sarah McBride, the first transgender Democratic congressperson in U.S. history, is pushing back.
During a press conference held by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which represents over 100 progressive members of Congress, caucus chair Pramila Jayapal was asked, “Some have blamed that voters in your party have leaned too far into culture war issues, transgender issues… how should your party respond to that?” In response, Jayapal turned to other caucus members present, prompting Sarah McBride to step forward and deliver a sharp rebuke of those claims.
“Let’s be clear,” McBride started. “The party that was focused on culture wars… the party that was focused on trans people… was the Republican Party. It was Donald Trump. It was the hundred million, two hundred million dollars they spent on television ads. But I want to be clear: I do not believe, from what I’ve seen from the voters in Delaware, that the voters in my state were responding to those attacks… We were seeing those ads that Donald Trump clearly prioritized… What I was hearing from voters across the state of Delaware was not the ads that Donald Trump was putting on the air. What I was hearing from folks was the need to build an economy for everyone… What I was hearing was that the American dream is increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible. What I was hearing was that we need to guarantee affordable healthcare, housing, and childcare for every person in this state and country.”
She then added, “I did not run on my identity, but my identity was not a secret. In a state where two-thirds of the voters are in the Philadelphia media market, with a trans candidate statewide, that candidate had the highest percentage of any Democrat running for statewide office in Delaware this cycle,” she said, referring to herself. Indeed, McBride received the highest statewide vote in Delaware, securing 57.9% compared to Harris’s 56.6%. McBride also recorded more votes than the Democratic candidate in 2020 and 2022.
You can watch the exchange here:
Sarah McBride has made history as the first transgender congresswoman elected to public office. Now, she’s stepping into a Republican-controlled Congress where her identity may be a flashpoint. She’ll need to navigate everything from traditional Congressional dress codes to high-profile antagonists like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has openly mocked McBride by using her former name and pronouns. In a House now led by Speaker Mike Johnson—an ex-Alliance Defending Freedom attorney that has pushed bills to restrict transgender people from the military, sports, and public life—the treatment McBride receives will be closely watched.
McBride’s remarks follow statements from two Democratic representatives who blamed the party’s stance on transgender inclusion—particularly in sports and prisons—as a major factor in its electoral losses. While most data showing that anti-transgender ads were not the reason Democrats lost, one much-criticized post-election poll, using a unique (and, some convincingly argue, flawed) methodology, suggested that voters felt Kamala Harris was “focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues than on helping the middle class.” This is despite Harris’s deliberate avoidance of the topic; she did not include a transgender speaker at the DNC and rarely, if ever, mentioned transgender issues. As Parker Molloy noted, “Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party as a whole barely even touched on trans rights during their campaign. They sidestepped any ‘trans rights’ messaging entirely. In fact, they barely acknowledged trans people’s existence at all.”
Some political pundits have echoed those concerns, though they tend to be people who have continually pushed against transgender inclusion and support. Political pundits like Helen Lewis at the Atlantic, who previously claimed that the left is “fighting a war on saying the word Women,” and Matthew Yglesias, who has supported anti-trans medical worker Jamie Reed, who shared private details of her clinic’s transgender youth patients with the media, many of which were later debunked as lies. Now, such writers are finding new life, encouraging the Democratic Party to throw transgender people out as some sort of sacrifice in the hopes of chasing a few votes, something Molloy notes in her piece would be a losing move, stating, “By conceding ground on trans rights, Democrats would effectively abandon their core values—and for what?… Voters who will choose Republican over Republican-lite seven days a week?”
Meanwhile, there are prominent examples of Democrats who have supported transgender rights and seen success, such as Montana’s transgender representative Zooey Zephyr and her fellow House Democrats, who made historic gains in this election. In Montana, Democrats picked up nine House seats—their largest increase in 30 years—in the very chamber where Zephyr was censured. Reflecting on these wins, Zephyr stated in a press release, “When Democrats are unwavering in our values, we are rewarded at the ballot box.”
As explanations for Harris’s 2024 loss continue to surface, the Democratic Party has not yet fractured over transgender rights. The two representatives who scapegoated transgender people after the election have faced intense backlash, including from organizations like the Young Democrats of America. Meanwhile, transgender lawmakers like McBride and Zephyr offer a blueprint for the future, urging Democrats to stand firm on their values and work to improve the lives of all constituents without sacrificing vulnerable minorities. The question now is whether the Democratic Party will embrace this vision, or reject it in an attempt to court right-wing voters.
This article originally appeared on Erin in the Morning.
