US Presidential election 2020: Sarah McBride becomes America's first transgender senator

While the United State Elections vote counting sees a neck and neck competition between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Sarah McBride became the nation's first openly transgender state senator after claiming a seat in Delaware on Tuesday night. 

"We did it," McBride wrote on Twitter on Tuesday night after her victory.

In the previous US Presidential elections in 2016, she became the first openly transgender person to speak at any major-party convention in the country. 

At present, there are four openly transgender state legislators: Virginia state Del. Danica Roem; Colorado state Rep. Brianna Titone; and New Hampshire state Reps. Lisa Bunker and Gerri Cannon and McBride will be the first Senator. 

This time, McBride's campaign focussed around affordable health care, improving minimum wage and school funding, among other issues.

"From the start, I knew I wanted to be the healthcare and paid leave candidate," said McBride to The News Journal. 

"Even before COVID, people were feeling that need. This has just reinforced and deepened that need. For Delawareans, for those in poverty, those struggling through the pandemic, the issues we're talking about aren't abstract." 

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump took the lead over Democratic rival Joe Biden in the vital battleground of Florida and other US swing states on Tuesday, but Biden pinned his White House hopes on Arizona and a "blue wall" of three Rust Belt states that could take days to count their votes.

Biden's hopes for a decisive early defeat of Trump faded as the president took solid leads in Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Texas. Fox News projected Trump would win Florida, a must-win state in his quest for 270 Electoral College votes.