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Sarah McBride explains why she's not into reality TV antics by Republican lawmakers.
“They want to employ the strategies of a Bravo TV show to get attention...and the way to do that is to pick a fight with someone and throw wine in their face," the transgender congresswoman said.
As the first out transgender member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride says she’s navigating more than legislation—she’s contending with the weight of history, the burden of expectation, and a Republican Party fixated on her identity.
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In a wide-ranging interview on Pod Save America, the first-year Democrat from Delaware described her first months in the House as walking into “a perfect storm,” with transgender rights under coordinated attack and right-wing lawmakers using her as a political prop.
Related: As the first out trans person in Congress, Sarah McBride is ready to fight for us
“Some of my colleagues are treating me the way they’re treating me for a couple of reasons,” McBride said. “One, it’s because they want attention, right? They want to employ the strategies of a Bravo TV show to get attention in a body of 435 people. And the way to do that is to pick a fight with someone and throw wine in their face.”
That fight, she said, is not one she intends to fuel unnecessarily.
Related: Jon Lovett warns Democrats that ‘every inch Trump gets is an inch we don’t get back’
“If I am the topic, then it is my job to make the people who are trying to make me the topic seem small,” McBride said. “If my constituents who are trans are the topic, then I’ll fight back.”
That discernment is part of what she called “fighting smart”—a broader political change theory rooted in strategic communication and emotional restraint. She explained that responding to every provocation only serves her detractors. “I’m giving them what they want when I respond in a way that might feel viscerally comforting to me and the community,” she said. “But I’m giving them precisely what they want.”
Related: Lauren Boebert & Nancy Mace confront woman they thought was trans in ‘predictable’ Capitol bathroom incident
One recent example came when a Republican colleague misgendered her during a committee hearing. McBride calmly addressed the chair using the same incorrect title—“Madam Chair”—before two male colleagues began arguing, seemingly oblivious to her presence. “I’ve just never seen you treated more like a woman in your whole life,” cohost Jon Lovett remarked, contemplating the irony. McBride replied with a wry nod to Massachusetts Rep. Bill Keating, calling him a “trans icon” for stepping in to defend her.
In another incident, GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and South Carolina’s Nancy Mace confronted a Democratic colleague in the women’s restroom, falsely believing she was McBride. “They ran into the restroom, and then apparently a couple of seconds later, sheepishly walked out because they thought this woman was me,” McBride said. “There is one trans person in Congress. They cannot even police the one bathroom off the floor with the one trans person in Congress correctly.”
McBride said those experiences illustrate the real-life consequences of anti-trans rhetoric and policy, even for cisgender people. “We are already seeing the very predictable consequences of this particularly inflamed moment,” she said, citing the case of a cisgender woman fired from her job after a customer wrongly assumed she was trans. “Apparently, if you have shoulder-length hair and glasses, you’re told you don’t belong in the women’s restroom under their regime.”
For McBride, the challenge is to recenter the narrative—not on her, not on President Donald Trump, but on her constituents.
Related: 'Have you no decency?': Republican calls Sarah McBride 'mister,' but Democrats wouldn't have it
“We do fall in this trap of making him the main character,” she said. “And I think if we always, always, always keep it local, keep it centered on our constituents, on people that we’re defending… I also think it helps to reinforce for a voter the answer to the question, which is, ‘Do you care about me? Do you like me?”
Asked how Democrats should respond to the Trump movement’s attacks on everything from gender identity to academic freedom, McBride said progressives must hold firm to their values while also broadening their coalition.
“I think we’ve been trying something different for a couple of years now, and it hasn’t worked,” she said. “I might be wrong. This theory of change might not work. But I do believe that if you look through our history, you do see that it is the theory of change that most consistently works.”
That theory involves patience, persuasion, and allowing space for growth. McBride also urged Democrats to welcome voters who may not yet fully support trans rights but are otherwise aligned with the party’s goals.
“If you’re 90 percent with someone, but we excommunicate you because of 10 percent, the right’s very good about saying, ‘Well, welcome on in,’” she said. “You’re being oppressed by the left… punished by the left… welcome into our club.”
McBride warned that this strategy risks alienating persuadable people who then adopt more extreme views. “Instead of being with us on 90 percent, they flip to being against us on 90 percent,” she said. “That is human nature.”
For her, inclusion isn’t compromise—it’s an opportunity.
“Democracy only works if you are willing to have conversations across disagreement,” McBride said. “And if you are willing to join forces with people who might agree with you on most things but maybe disagree with you on some things.”
That message, she acknowledged, doesn’t always land well with activists demanding urgent change. “I get why people would be skeptical of this theory of change,” she said. “It hasn’t delivered enough change fast enough. But we’ve got to return to the basics. We’ve got to fill the knowledge gap.”
"In a year when Republican attacks on transgender Americans have intensified, McBride has emerged not only as a deft communicator and unflinching advocate, but also as the most favorably viewed member of the U.S. House among Democrats polled in a recent YouGov survey.
The March poll of 2,285 U.S. adult citizens found that McBride held a net favorability rating of +6 percent, the highest among any House Democrat included in the random sample of 30 figures. Fourteen percent of respondents said they had a “very favorable” view of McBride, while 12 percent described their opinion as “somewhat favorable.” Only 20 percent viewed her unfavorably, and more than half—54 percent—said they didn’t yet know enough about her.
By comparison, other prominent House Democrats, such as former California Rep. Katie Porter and Georgia U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, posted net favorability scores of +4 and +2 percent, respectively.
During her podcast appearance, McBride described what it felt like to grow up not yet out. “It was a constant feeling of homesickness,” she said. “This unwavering ache in the pit of my stomach that would only go away when I could be seen and affirmed and live as myself.”
Still, she said, her work in Congress now is less about relaying her own story and more about being seen as a complete human being. “If people can see trans people beyond the caricature… I think that benefits the community,” she said.
And though she’s often the target of vitriol, she refuses to let that define her service. “Despite the ups and the downs—and I know this sounds cliché—I am genuinely in awe that I have the privilege of being there,” she said.
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