By Danny Tye
Following the cataclysmic loss of Kamala Harris’s Democratic Party to Donald Trump’s far-right Republicans this American election cycle, queer and leftist news sites were quick to point out one small win in the rough: Sarah McBride’s election as a congresswoman for Delaware, making her the first out trans congressperson in U.S. history. Particularly against an offensive rush of transphobic campaigning by America’s right, her election is certainly historic. However, GAY45 senior political analyst Danny Tye argues, when contextualised within the collapse of good-will support from minoritised groups toward the Democratic Party this election cycle – particularly spurred by Harris’s rhetoric on Gaza, which McBride only regurgitates – it is perhaps necessary to be more critical of the ‘small wins’ Democrats are now claiming.
Graphic by GAY45.
Understandably, America’s Democratic Party is reeling following this month’s defeat.
The historic loss for the party – which lost the presidency and its hold of the Senate while failing to reclaim the House of Representatives – followed a rushed, chaotic campaigning period. Marred by Kamala Harris’ eleventh-hour imposition as candidate due to the Democrats’ incapacity to retire wildly unpopular incumbent Joe Biden, the top-down direction of the campaign sought primarily to aggravate fears of Trump’s chaotic authoritarianism. Giving the American people a genuine reason to support Harris, particularly youth disillusioned by the genocide in Gaza, seemed to be underprioritised.
Identity politics, in the most cynical sense, has been a mainstay of Democrat campaigns throughout living memory. Obama’s successful campaign for ‘Change’, which emphasised the historical weight of America electing its first Black president, was followed by Hillary Clinton’s failed pseudo-feminist campaign, in which spurious claims of misogyny were used against the electorate. This included smears against supporters of Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s primary opponent from the centre-left (by European standards, but Leninist by America’s) as well as against Sanders himself, which backfired to the extent that the campaign helped to bring the pejorative term ‘white feminism’ into mainstream use for the first time.
Harris’ campaign, when viewed – in her own terms – ‘in the context of all in which you live and what came before [it]’ – deemphasised identitarianism. Compared to her forerunner Clinton, whose campaign was built around the slogan ‘I’m With Her’, Harris did not rely on her womanhood, much less her Black womanhood, as a source of political kudos. Experts in public opinion interviewed by Al Jazeera reasoned that this reluctance was borne of Trump’s aggressively anti-DEI campaign against Harris, where he accused her of having ‘turned Black’ in order to win over America’s voters of colour.
As hesitant as Harris and her team were to exploit her identity for political clout, her loss has empowered the conservative wing of the Democrats to urge for a non-’woke’ invigoration of the party’s public image. Interviews with more than two dozen members of the DNC, as the party prepares to elect a new chair early next year, brought to light a resentful streak, left to fester by the silence of the Democrat elite regarding the party’s failure. Quoted in Politico, party members spoke bitterly of the Democrats’ image as a ‘freak show party’ lying ‘too far out there on identity’ and expressed a desire to appeal to middle American families and ‘the guy who drives a truck home at the end of the day.’ At the same time, members of colour commented that the rumoured list of candidates for party chair were heavily white and male.
The Democrats are right to critique their current approach. Harris’ desire to appeal to Gen-Z voters, who now number around 30 million, were reflected in her campaign’s social media output, which sought to capitalise on “brat summer” and meme-able quotes like ‘You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’. These efforts were in vain. Although America’s youth, especially young women, have moved strongly to the left in terms of policy demands, youth turnout for the Democrats collapsed this cycle. Though Harris still led the youth vote by six points, apathy meant that only 42% of young people went to the polls, allowing Trump’s moderate growth in youth appeal to wield a disproportionate impact.
The critique of the Democrats as out of touch with the American people does not need to come from the right, and those involved with the party’s direction should not necessarily conclude that its policy and public image must become paler and straighter in order to win. As the party seeks to reclaim and utilise its strongholds of support (the youth, LGBTQ+ and minority voters) it must learn to stop talking and listen to these voters’ material needs and demands.
While politicians chasing the youth vote often seek to rely entirely on feigning relatability through the use of pop-cultural signifiers – who could forget the infamous Pokemon Go to the polls? – young people today, bearing the brunt of underemployment, high rent prices and inflation, are much more economically-minded than establishment figures wish to consider. Compared to previous elections, ‘social issues’ like abortion or queer rights have slipped below the economy and employment, which voters under 30 are now most likely to prioritise.
Identity politics, then, seem to have run their course. Young people and marginalised groups are not going to be enthused by a politician who merely claims to be someone different, they demand a policy platform which promises to do something different. Kamala perhaps lost the election on the 8th of October – when asked on The View what she would have done differently to Biden, she infamously said that ‘not a thing comes to mind’. Not a slogan to rally behind, and one which her Republican opponents capitalised on greatly.
Bernie Sanders delivered a scathing autopsy of the Democrats’ loss from the left, blaming a decentering of economic concerns alongside the party’s warmongering in Gaza. ‘First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change.’ Any hope of a measured, humble response from the Democrats, proving their willingness to take the left’s criticism on board and change tack, was dashed when DNC chair Jaime Harrison dismissed Sanders’ comments as ‘straight up BS.’
While Americans as a whole long to have their voices heard, and America’s youth are drawn away from the Democratic establishment, the party seems unwilling to take its head out of the sand. Yet one outcome of this month’s election which bucked the trend of resounding Democrat loss, and serves to disprove the thesis that the Democrats lost because of ‘wokeness’, was the election of America’s first out trans congressperson, Sarah McBride.
McBride had first made international headlines in 2012, when she came out as a trans woman while serving as student body president at American University in Washington, D.C. Having already allied herself with the Biden dynasty following a stint as a staffer for Beau, son of then-VP Joe, she truly became part of the furniture in 2012 when she was invited to intern at the White House, making her the first openly trans woman to work in the presidential seat of power. Her experience in Democratic politics, as well as the newfound fame brought by her coming-out, skyrocketed her to a trailblazing role in trans advocacy. She joined the board of directors at Equality Delaware in 2013 and helped to bring about the passage of a bill securing anti-discrimination rights in her home state.
Embarking on a career in advocacy, she continued working with the Obama administration on LGBTQ+ issues alongside her role as the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign. She broke another record, and again catapulted herself to international headlines, with her 2016 address to the Democratic National Convention. In her speech – the first ever address to a major-party convention by a trans person – she spoke eloquently of her desire to build ‘a nation where everyone has the freedom to live openly and equally, a nation that’s stronger together’.
When McBride won the Democratic primary for Delaware District 1 in 2020, putting her on the path to being elected senator, Human Rights Campaign president Alphonso David acknowledged her history of firsts, stating that her victory ‘will show that any child can achieve their dream, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation’.
Yet beyond listing her pioneering achievements as a trans person, it is important to examine McBride’s political record and her attitudes towards policy. According to her friend and former HRC colleague Charlotte Clymer, McBride ‘has this undeniable hunger to ease the suffering of others, and it’s so potent in what she does on a constant basis.’ Inspiring words, and, judged by McBride’s achievements as senator listed on her website, a defensible stance. McBride’s legislative work has included ‘expanding access to healthcare, requiring mental health and media literacy education in public schools, promoting green technologies, preventing lead poisoning in youth’ as well as serving as chair of the Senate Health & Social Services Committee.
McBride ran unopposed in 2022 and secured a second term in the Delaware Senate, and in September beat out three other candidates to become the Democratic nominee for the state’s Congresswoman. Her victory in this year’s election should be a rare glimmer of optimism, considering not only the Democrats’ loss nationwide but also the extent of the transphobic campaign run by the Republicans at Trump’s behest: according to the New York Times, the GOP has spent $65m on anti-trans ads since August alone.
Yet there is one aspect of McBride’s political profile that spoils her otherwise stellar career, and leaves a bittersweet taste following this week’s triumph: her sticking with the Democratic status quo regarding Israel. In an interview last August with Jewish Insider, McBride was prompted about her Congresswoman predecessor Lisa Blunt Rochester’s support for reductions in US aid to Israel. Stating her belief that such sanctions would ‘single out Israel’ and hold the country ‘to a different standard’, she went on to wax lyrical about her support for close relations between the two countries. She described the ‘special relationship’ between the US and Israel as ‘critical’, ‘a bedrock of America’s national security and our global values’, and as something that she would ‘certainly work in Congress to continue to protect.’
McBride’s support for Israel has not faltered since the country began its mass murder and destruction in Palestine and Lebanon following the October 7th attack. In April, she spoke on Twitter in support of Biden’s ‘commitment to support Israel’s self-defense’ following Iran’s missile launches against Israeli territory. It remains to be seen whether McBride’s approach to Israel, along with that of the Democratic Party in general, will shift – however opportunistically – given the Democrats’ newfound marginalisation in the US government. As Trump’s government-in-waiting rallies behind Israel, already dubbed the ‘dream team’ by Israeli settlers and far-right nationalists, all dissident voices within American politics will be necessary today and invaluable historically. Yet irrespective of any hypothetical future U-turn, McBride’s willingness to support Israel even after months of inhumane slaughter has shamefully marked what should be a moment of celebration for queer people.
The queer left has long been averse to blanket celebrations of gay people reaching Western public office. This is understandable, given that the combined effects of these ‘queer’ politicians’ class-based, racial, and ideological background can render them as servile to the capitalist norm as their straight colleagues, if not more so. To continue pushing for a truly anti-establishment queer movement which stands in solidarity with oppressed persons around the world, we must hold the same high standards for Sarah McBride and any other trans politicians that follow her. While acknowledging her remarkable achievement in being elected to Congress – particularly so given the Democrats’ broader failure against Trump’s fascist onslaught – she will serve the queer community little purpose there, if she lets her voice be one that echoes rather than saying something new.
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