Part of the Series
Communities Beyond Elections
Transgender candidates won several federal, state and local elections this cycle, despite Republicans spending over $200 million on an ad campaign that falsely presented trans people as a threat to the nation.
Delaware State Sen. Sarah McBride (D) won the state’s sole House seat on Tuesday, becoming the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.
“Because of your votes and your values, I am proud to be your next member of Congress,” McBride said on social media. “Delaware has sent the message loud and clear that…this is a democracy that is big enough for all of us.”
McBride, former national spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, campaigned on expanding access to health care and child care, protecting reproductive rights, and implementing gun reform. She was endorsed and funded by pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, and has said that she would oppose any proposal to place restrictions on U.S. aid to Israel.
McBride’s win comes after the election of Democrat Kim Coco Iwamoto in August to the Hawaii House of Representatives. Iwamoto, who is Hawaii’s first openly transgender elected official, was the first person in U.S. history to unseat an incumbent House speaker in a Democratic primary.
Voters also elected Democrat Aime Wichtendahl, a member of the Hiawatha City Council, to Iowa’s state House, making her Iowa’s first transgender state lawmaker.
Montana State Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D) was also reelected, ensuring her return to the state House floor nearly two years after she was silenced and sanctioned by her Republican colleagues for defending the right of trans youth to gender-affirming care.
“It is an honor to have been re-elected to the Montana House of Representatives,” Zephyr said on X. “And I promise to do as I have always done: fight for my constituents, stand up against those who seek to break democracy, and be a bulwark against the rising tide of American fascism.”
Several transgender politicians also won their first elections or were reelected to city council seats, including Jennifer Williams (Trenton, New Jersey), Emma Curtis (Lexington, Kentucky), and Jo Miller (Woodbury City, New Jersey).
These wins represent some of the few bright spots on an otherwise grim night for Democrats, as Donald Trump surged to victory in the presidential race and Republicans regained control of the Senate and appear poised to take back the House of Representatives.
In recent years, right-wing lawmakers have launched increasing attacks on the rights of transgender people across the county, specifically trans youth. In fact, research from the Williams Institute found that over 90 percent of transgender youth live in states where laws have been proposed or passed to restrict their rights.
These attacks are now poised to move to the federal level. Trump’s political platform, “Agenda 47,” includes several anti-trans policies, such as banning transgender people from participating in women’s sports and prohibiting federal and state funding for gender-affirming care. With an emboldened conservative legislature, transgender adults are also likely to face growing threats and restrictions to needed health care.
However, the election of transgender politicians demonstrates that trans people will continue to fight for their rights and advocate for their communities, advocates say.
“With the devastating Harris loss still very fresh, it’s important not to lose hope,” transgender activist Allison Chapman told Truthout. “With multiple victories of trans politicians across the United States, it’s clear that trans people are not going back without a fight, and we can win.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy