Transgender activist who made waves at DNC is running for Delaware Senate

Transgender activist Sarah McBride announced her bid for the Delaware Senate on Tuesday.

"I've spent my life standing up so that people can have dignity, peace of mind, and a fair shot at staying afloat and getting ahead," McBride, a Democrat, said in her campaign announcement.

If she wins the 2020 race to replace Democratic Sen. Harris McDowell, who is retiring at the end of his term, McBride will be the state's first elected transgender senator.

In 2016, she was the first openly transgender person to address the Democratic National Convention. She was also one of the first to work in the White House, joining the Office of Public Engagement in August 2012, soon after coming out as transgender when she was a college senior.

McBride has also worked for former Gov. Jack Markell and attorney general Beau Biden, both Democrats. Now serving as national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGTBQ lobbying group, she has continued to be a force for the movement through the Trump administration, which she called "one of the most explicitly anti-LGBTQ administrations in history" during a 2018 interview with The Washington Post.

"We have to continue to resist attacks," she told The Post. "But while we do that, we are still moving equality forward," including passing more inclusive laws at the state and local level, like the Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Act - a bill McBride lobbied for which was signed into law in 2013.

"We can meet these challenges," she said during her campaign announcement, "but it will take big ideas and the courage to act."