Electors were elected in Delaware the nation’s first transgender member of Congress on Tuesday, NBC News predicted that state Sen. Sarah McBride would win the race for the state’s only House seat.
At the same time, voters in the entire United States chose Send Donald Trump back to the White HouseNBC News predicted the election of a presidential ticket that many advocates warned would be the worst in American history for trans people.
Asked Tuesday afternoon, before both races were called, what he would do in that scenario, McBride said he would be willing to back down for another Trump term.
McBride said he didn’t want to “minimize the danger that comes with a second Trump administration” for LGBTQ people, but that hope “only makes sense in the face of adversity.”
“It’s always been one of our community’s biggest challenges to take our most significant steps forward,” he said after casting his vote in Wilmington.
In a second Trump administration, he said, the country could see what one Florida attorney described to him as a “lost moment.”
“We have retreated, but the force and pressure of retreat is ultimately driving us to places we have yet to go,” he said. “We’re going to have to keep fighting for it, and that means continuing the effort, opening hearts and changing minds, pushing back the Trump administration, and summoning our hope to do the hard work of building democracy. take our coalition forward, win the next election, and install pro-equality elected officials at every level of government across the country.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on some advocates’ concerns that Trump’s second term would be dangerous for transgender Americans.
McBride will enter Congress in an election year in which Republicans, including Trump, have spent more than $200 million on the network. television ads targeting trans peopleAccording to data shared with NBC News on Tuesday by AdImpact, an analytics firm that tracks political ad spending.
Trump has promised to reinstate the ban on transgender people entering the military Title IX policy banned trans students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity. He also said that he will ban it transitional care for minors across the countryand his platform said it would declare that any clinic providing transgender care to minors would be disqualified from Medicare and Medicaid.
Some trans people spoke to NBC News In the run-up to the election, they had plans to leave their states and even leave the country if Trump won for another term.
McBride said he is not running to be spokesman for any particular community other than his constituents in Delaware. Unlike an advocacy organization, he said, he won’t send out a tweet or press release every time an officer says something offensive or offensive.
“My job is to be a damn good member of Congress, and that way I’ll earn the respect of both people who aren’t quite sure what they think about trans people and, yes, people who think trans people don’t deserve it. they have the same dignity and rights as everyone else,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s the only way I can make any commitment, because if I go into every fight, take every hit and try to push my way through, I’m not going to be there long. And so my job will be to stay focused on the task at hand. If that means standing up for my LGBTQ constituents, I will.”