Marie Pinkney is a

social worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...

and member of the

Delaware Senate The Delaware State Senate is the upper house of the Delaware General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is composed of 21 Senators, each of whom is elected to a four-year term, except when reapportionment occur ...

from

New Castle County, Delaware New Castle County is the northernmost of the three List of counties in Delaware, counties of the U.S. state of Delaware (New Castle, Kent County, Delaware, Kent, and Sussex County, Delaware, Sussex). As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. A newcomer to politics, in September 2020 she defeated incumbent State Senate President Pro Tempore

David McBride David B. McBride (born June 23, 1942) is an American politician who served in the Delaware General Assembly for forty-two years. After serving one term in the Delaware House of Representatives from the 15th district, he was elected to the Delawa ...

in the Democratic

primary election Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...

by a 52.4%-47.6% margin. In the heavily-Democratic

majority minority A majority-minority or minority-majority area is a term used to refer to a subdivision in which one or more racial, ethnic, and/or religious minorities (relative to the whole country's population) make up a majority of the local population. Ter ...

13th District, the Democratic nomination is considered tantamount to election. Pinkney defeated Republican nominee Alexander Homich in the general election of November 3, 2020. Pinkney is the first openly queer woman elected to serve in Delaware's state legislature, after Senator Karen E. Peterson came out as gay in 2013 while in office. She is one of three

LGBTQ+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

candidates to be elected to the Delaware General Assembly in 2020, along with

Sarah McBride Sarah Elizabeth McBride (born August 9, 1990) is an American activist and politician who is the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for Delaware's at-large congressional district. A member of the Democratic Party (United ...

and

Eric Morrison Eric Morrison is an American politician serving as a member of the Delaware House of Representatives from the 27th district.Jacob Took"Newcomer Morrison elected to state house in District 27" '' Newark Post'', November 3, 2020. He assumed office ...

.Ring, Trudy. "Dragged for Drag, Gay Candidate Wins in Del., Along With Queer Woman: Eric Morrison beat a legislator who had criticized him for performing in drag, and Marie Pinkney is on track to become the state's first Black queer lawmaker."
''

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * The Advocate (magazine), ''The Advocate'' (magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States * ''The Harvard Advocate' ...

'' September 17, 2020

Personal life

Pinkney grew up in New Castle and Wilmington. She attended

Howard High School of Technology Howard High School of Technology is a vocational-technical high school in Wilmington, Delaware and is the oldest of four high schools within the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District, which includes Delcastle Technical High Sch ...

and

Delaware State University Delaware State University (DSU or Del State) is a Statutory college#Outside New York State, privately governed, state-assisted Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Land-grant university, land-grant research universi ...

. She worked at a treatment center for adolescents with mental health and substance abuse problems, and now works as a trauma social worker and case manager at

Christiana Hospital Christiana Hospital is a 1,039-bed nationally ranked, non-profit, Tertiary care, tertiary, research and Teaching hospital, academic medical center located in Stanton, Delaware, Stanton, Newark, Delaware, Newark, Delaware, servicing the entire Del ...

."About..." on Pinkney's website
/ref> Pinkney identifies as queer and is an active member of Christiana Care PRIDE, the LGBTQ+ employee resource group at her workplace.

References

External links

Pinkney campaign website
American social workers African-American state legislators in Delaware Women state legislators in Delaware Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Democratic Party members of the Delaware House of Representatives LGBTQ state legislators in Delaware African-American LGBTQ people American queer women 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century African-American women politicians Howard High School of Technology alumni 21st-century members of the Delaware General Assembly {{Delaware-politician-stub