
Last September, we wrote that Sarah McBride — who made history in 2024 as the first transgender American ever elected to Congress — would “garner plenty of attention from the GOP once she’s inaugurated.”
In fact, attacks on McBride’s gender identity began well before she was sworn in. The Republican Conference voted in November to require House members and their staff to use restrooms that align with their sex as assigned at birth, part of a clear effort to target McBride. More recently, GOP Reps. Mary Miller (IL-15) and Keith Self (TX-03) have referred to Delaware’s lone representative as “Mr. McBride” in formal House proceedings.
McBride has done her best to ignore those insults, labeling them “distractions” and even suggesting that Americans with different views on transgender issues should be welcomed into her party’s tent. The first bill she introduced seeks to prohibit credit repair organizations from lying about a consumer’s creditworthiness to federal agencies and law enforcement — not exactly a major front in the national culture wars.
Whichever Republican steps up to challenge McBride in 2026 will probably
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