Sarah McBride Makes History As First Openly Transgender Person Elected to Congress

NBC News reported Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride won the state's only House seat on Tuesday night.

McBride, a Democrat, defeated Republican John Whalen III, taking 57.8% of the vote with 95% of the vote in, the publication reported at the time of the announcement.

"Tonight is a testament to Delawareans that here in our state of neighbors, we judge candidates based on their ideas and not their identities," McBride said at Delaware's Democratic election night celebration.

She went on to thank her family and friends, along with her late husband Andy Cray.

"My time with Andy reinforced for me a simple truth, that hope as an emotion, hope as a phenomenon, only makes sense in the face of hardship," she said of Cray, who died just days after their wedding.

"While at this moment in America's history, hope sometimes feels hard to come by, we must never forget that we are the beneficiaries of seemingly impossible change," she added.

McBride opened up to NPR in June about the importance of representation.

"It's much harder to hate up close," she said. "I've seen the power of those interpersonal relationships that you have when you are present as a peer and as a colleague -- I've seen them transform people's approach, people's minds, people's hearts in Delaware. I know it might be a taller order in Washington, but I know it's possible."

McBride's key focuses are expanding affordable health care, protecting reproductive rights and increasing the minimum wage.

The 34-year-old previously worked for former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and the late Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden.

In 2012, she interned with the Obama administration.