Transgender Trailblazer Sarah McBride Heads to her Debut in Congress, Hoping for a Touch of Grace

A show pony and a work horse

Before working with McBride, Democratic state Sen. Elizabeth Lockman thought "she was probably a bit of a show pony, so good at presenting herself, public speaking," and already destined for a larger stage.

"Ok, she is the show pony, but can she be a work horse?" Lockman recalled thinking. "What I like to tell her is that she proved to us that she's both. She's probably one of the hardest-working people."

McBride rarely stops to eat on busy days, instead subsisting on a steady diet of coffee, heavy on the cream and sweetener.

And nowhere is her boundless energy more evident than when she talks about the minutiae of policymaking. She likes kitchen table issues: health care, paid family leave, childcare and affordable housing. In the state Senate, she chaired the health committee and helped expand access to Medicaid and dental care for underserved communities. Most of her bills got bipartisan support.

Pettyjohn, her Republican colleague, appreciated that McBride would often seek conservative members' input on legislation. "She's always one to come over, to make that effort to get outside that echo chamber and say, 'What can we do to polish it up some, to make it better?'"

Her signature accomplishment was helping pass paid family and medical leave in Delaware. It was personal for McBride.

Her partner Cray was 27 when he was diagnosed with oral cancer. Within a year, the prognosis was terminal. They moved up their wedding plans. They asked the Rev. Gene Robinson, a friend and the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, to officiate.

They married on the rooftop of their apartment building in August 2014. Cray died four days later at the hospital.

"The experience serving as a caregiver to him left me profoundly changed," McBride said.

"I think about all of the people who have to deal with what we dealt with or worse, without health insurance, without family support, without paid leave, without jobs that allowed them to continue to pay their rent," she said. "I just cannot imagine getting through even a fraction of what we went through without the support we had. It is a moral failing of our society and our country."