Sarah McBride, a Delaware state senator who later won a seat in Congress, speaks to the LGBTQ+ Caucus at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 21, 2024. (Jacob Fischler/States Newsroom)
During an election that saw Republicans secure the White House and both chambers of Congress, Sarah McBride’s congressional victory in Delaware offered a historic win for Democrats, transgender representation — and young people.
Winning a House seat representing Delaware, 34-year-old McBride became the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, just four years after the Democrat was elected as the nation’s first transgender state senator. Groundbreaking in any year and especially one in which conservatives regularly attacked the transgender community, McBride’s victory also marked a major win for a multimillion-dollar campaign — launched by school shooting survivor David Hogg — to elect young lawmakers to state and national office.
“From the youngest-ever Senator to the first Trans member of Congress, Delaware knows what young leaders can accomplish when given a chance, just look at Joe Biden,” Hogg posted on X, commenting on how the 81-year-old president was first elected to Congress in 1972 just days before his 30th birthday.
After Hogg survived the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 of his classmates and educators, he became a formidable up-and-comer in Democratic politics, turning his attention to helping elect Gen Z and millennial Democrats. His latest effort is Leaders We Deserve, a political action committee formed in 2023 that raised nearly $8.5 million as of September to elevate the campaigns of McBride and a dozen other young candidates.
“Leaders We Deserve is proud to say that Sarah will be our first endorsee elected to Congress,” Hogg wrote.
Beyond McBride’s high-profile win, candidates endorsed by Hogg’s PAC saw mixed results — with more defeats than victories. Of a dozen candidates offered campaign cash and boots-on-the-ground voter outreach by Leaders We Deserve, five won their races and seven lost.
They include the successful campaign of a seventh-grade math teacher in Atlanta, the defeat of a former Miss Texas who campaigned for a state House seat on a gun control platform, and the setback encountered by a 28-year-old mother who launched her Tennessee House of Representatives campaign after the state denied her access to an abortion.
Leaders We Deserve has pumped millions of dollars — and resources from Democratic power players — into the campaigns of young candidates who support progressive causes like gun control, reproductive rights and protecting public school funding. The PAC didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Other Leaders We Deserve-endorsed candidates who beat their GOP opponents include Dante Pittman, whose election to the North Carolina General Assembly helped Democrats break a Republican supermajority. In Hogg’s home state of Florida, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost — who at 27 became the first member of Gen Z to serve in Congress — won his reelection bid with nearly 62 percent of the vote.
In Georgia, middle school math teacher Bryce Berry defeated an incumbent who switched from Democrat to Republican last year after breaking from party ranks to support private school vouchers. In Ohio, Democrat Christine Cockley easily defeated Republican rival Hussein Jabiri.
The seven candidates who did not prevail include Kristian Carranza, whose campaign for a closely watched seat in the Texas House of Representatives secured more than $1 million in Leaders We Deserve support before losing in a tight race to Republican rival and incumbent state Rep. John Lujan. In another competitive race in Texas, Republican Rep. Angie Chen Button won her ninth election to the Texas Legislature, defeating Democrat Averie Bishop.
In Pennsylvania, former teacher and longtime Republican state Rep. Joe Emrick won reelection, defeating Leaders We Deserve-endorsed Democrat Anna Thomas, whose campaign centered on bolstering school funding. Republican Mike Sparks, who has served in the Tennessee House of Representatives since 2010, defeated Democrat Luis Mata.
In another Tennessee House race, Republican Jeff Burkhart won reelection in a closely watched contest against Democrat Allie Phillips, who said she was forced to go out of state to terminate a nonviable pregnancy because of Tennessee’s strict abortion laws. After defeating the Leaders We Deserve-endorsed Phillips, Burkhart said his campaign was about “fighting California, New York and everyone else.”
Nate Douglas, a 23-year-old University of Florida graduate, failed in his bid to oust Republican Florida Rep. Susan Plasencia. The Douglas campaign relied heavily on get-out-the-vote efforts among college students.
In Georgia, Republican state Sen. Shawn Still was reelected, defeating Democrat Ashwin Ramaswami by 7 percentage points. Ramaswami, 25, was still in law school when he decided to campaign against Still, who in 2023 was one of 18 people who were indicted alongside President-elect Donald Trump on allegations of conspiring to overturn Trump’s 2020 presidential election defeat in the state.
After Trump regained control of the White House and Republicans swept into elected office in races across the country, Hogg turned to X to reiterate his argument that new, young voices are more critical than ever.
“Time for some big changes to the Democratic Party,” he wrote.
This story first appeared at The 74, a nonprofit news site covering education.