Delaware Sen. Sarah McBride, who won this week’s Democratic primary and is likely to become the first transgender person to serve in Congress, received a congratulatory call Wednesday from a powerful friend and ally: President Joe Biden.
The president will provide details of the conversation in an exclusive interview with the Washington Blade in the Oval Office on Thursday, and the transcript will be available online early next week.
“I called her and said, ‘Sarah,’ and I said, ‘Beau is looking down from heaven and blessing you,'” Biden said, referring to his late son, who served as Delaware’s attorney general until his death from cancer in 2015.
McBride worked on Beau Biden’s election campaign in 2006 and his reelection campaign in 2010. When she came out as transgender two years later, the attorney general called her and said, “I’m so proud of you. I love you. You’re still part of the Biden family.”
The president told the Blade that Mrs. McBride “began to become overwhelmed with emotion,” and she “replied, ‘I’m here because of Beau. He had faith in me.'”
When the two worked together,[Beau] Biden said he was “badly going to get rid of her” because he “hired her,” but “now she’s going to be the next woman in Congress. She’s going to be the next woman in Congress from Delaware.”
When asked later how he would stay involved in the fight for LGBTQ rights after he leaves office, the president referenced McBride again: “Delaware used to be a pretty conservative state, and now Sarah is going to be our congresswoman. I pray to God.”
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
