Congress
Meet the new members: The first transgender member of Congress
The new member: Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.)
How they got here: McBride claimed Delaware’s sole House seat, defeating former state trooper and retired businessman John Whalen, 58 percent to 42 percent.
Inside the campaign: The historic nature of her candidacy has not gone unnoticed, but issues like expanding access to health care, reducing costs and ensuring access to abortion were key topics for McBride on the campaign trail.
Her website proudly declares she’ll back “any positive policy that advances our country toward the ultimate goal of universal coverage” for health care and fight for “the full range of reproductive health care patients need.”
Her opponent, Whalen, focused his campaign on the southern border and controlling the national debt, telling CBS News “there’s more important things than that” when asked about her identity as a transgender woman.
Key issues: Health care’s been a core focus for McBride since she joined the Delaware state Senate in 2020. There’s also a personal connection: She lost her husband, Andrew Cray, to terminal cancer days after marrying him in 2014.
She has also vowed to continue fighting for affordable child care, housing access, union rights, and paid family and medical leave.
Background: There are familiar Washington stops in McBride’s career: stints in the Obama White House, the Center for American Progress and campaign work. But that doesn’t overshadow the historic nature of her rise to Blue Light News.
She was the first openly transgender person to speak at a national political conference when she addressed the DNC in 2016. She became the first transgender state senator upon her election in Delaware in 2020. And she’ll become the first openly transgender member of Congress.
Campaign ads that caught our eye: In some very relatable content, McBride said in her opening campaign video that it takes “my morning coffee” among many other things to get the government working better. Another catchy ad featured various unions around the state touting their enthusiastic support for her.
Fun facts: President Joe Biden wrote the foreword to McBride’s 2018 memoir by McBride entitled: “Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality.” She was also student body president at American University.
We’re spotlighting new members during the transition. Want more? Meet Sen.-elect John Curtis.
Congress
Congress must ‘adequately’ fund defense, Johnson says, amid talk of $200 billion war request
Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday Congress has to “adequately fund defense” amid the military campaign in Iran as he declined to rule out a possible $200 billion emergency Pentagon infusion.
Johnson spoke shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to rule out a supplemental spending request of that size at a morning news conference. The Washington Post first reported the $200 billion figure, which Blue Light News has not independently verified.
“I’m sure it’s not a random number,” Johnson told reporters at the Capitol, saying he expected any funding request to be “detailed and specified.”
“So we’ll look at that. But obviously it’s a dangerous time in the world and we have to adequately fund defense, and we have a commitment to do that,” he added.
Republicans on Capitol Hill fear the total price tag of the war is climbing rapidly, with the war effort costing more than $1 billion a day by some accounts. But many are still in the dark about how much total funding is needed.
“I don’t know what’s going to come in yet, so everything’s up in the air,” Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) said when asked if he would support such a large funding package. “I can’t qualify any answer for you.”
Several Democrats immediately rejected the suggestion of a $200 billion funding bill out of hand, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise declined to say if such a request could pass the House.
Asked if the request should be scaled down before coming to Capitol Hill, he said, “We will have a negotiation at some point.”
“But it hasn’t started yet,” he added. “It will happen soon.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) endorsed Rep. Kevin Hern’s bid for the open Senate seat in Oklahoma to replace Sen. Markwayne Mullin on Thursday, as Republicans look to avoid a messy primary in the red-leaning state.
Thune called Hern a “proven conservative leader” and supporter of their shared Republican agenda. “He will be a great asset in the Senate and has my full support and endorsement,” Thune said in a statement.
The seat is open after President Donald Trump tapped Mullin to replace Kristi Noem as Department of Homeland Security secretary.
Trump had previously endorsed Hern for the Senate seat in a post on Truth Social.
“A true friend of MAGA, Kevin is now running for the United States Senate, where I know he will continue to do an incredible job,” Trump wrote. “Kevin is strongly supported by the fiercest MAGA Warriors in Oklahoma, and the most Highly Respected Leaders in the United States Senate!”
Hern is running in November for a full term, but Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt will need to appoint a successor in the coming weeks to serve until then. By state law, the person who is appointed to fill the seat temporarily cannot run for the full term.
Other major Republican figures in the state — including Stitt and Rep. Stephanie Bice — have said they would not run for the Senate seat.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee voted Thursday to advance Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to be the next Homeland Security secretary, after the Oklahoma lawmaker clashed with committee Chair Rand Paul in a surprisingly tense Wednesday confirmation hearing.
The vote fell mostly along party lines, with a notable vote swap. Paul, a Kentucky Republican, voted against advancing Mullin’s nomination. Paul took Mullin to task Wednesday over past disparaging comments Mullin made against him and the nature of “special missions” he claimed to have taken as a member of the House.
All but one Democrat — John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — voted against advancing Mullin’s nomination.
- Trump administration may unsanction some Iranian oil as energy prices spike, Bessent says
- Congress must ‘adequately’ fund defense, Johnson says, amid talk of $200 billion war request
- Thune, Tim Scott endorse Hern for open Oklahoma Senate seat
- Why targeting Kharg Island could backfire on Trump
- Mullin’s nomination to be DHS chief advances out of committee
- Sexual assault allegations roil bills honoring César Chávez
- Bernie Sanders to force disapproval votes over U.S. arms sales to Israel
- Capitol agenda: Markwayne Mullin’s rockier-than-expected road
- Political operatives with Trump ties raked in millions of dollars in commissions from DHS ad campaign
- Pritzker helped a Black woman become senator. Some Black leaders are still mad at him.
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