Moderators at a candidate forum in Talleyville, Delaware, on Thursday night forced Republican House candidate Joseph Arminio to leave the event after he repeatedly misgendered Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), the first out transgender congresswoman, WDEL reported. The crowd booed Arminio for misgendering her, but McBride appeared to say she wanted him to stay at the event.
During the forum, hosted by the Jewish Federation of Delaware and the Siegel Jewish Community Center, Arminio referred to McBride as a “gentleman” and used male possessive pronouns like “his.” When the crowd of roughly 100 people largely started booing him, he testily said, “I would like to show respect to the speaker. That would be nice.”
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After his comment, event moderator Ken Grant told him, “This is your final warning. If you fail to show respect to anyone else on this stage, you’ll be asked to leave.”
When responding to the next question, Arminio said, “I committed an error before, and I do acknowledge it. It’s not the first error I’ve made in this campaign or at any point in my future life.”
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But then, about 12 minutes later, when referring to Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and McBride while discussing rising healthcare costs, Arminio called the two Democrats “gentlemen.”
When McBride learned Arminio might be ejected from the event, she said, “I don’t want this gentleman to not have the ability …,” but the moderator ejected Arminio anyway.
In his opening statement, Republican Senate candidate Michael Katz referenced Arminio’s behavior, saying, “I would like to apologize to everybody here and everybody else on this stage. As a physician, I believe in our common humanity and respect for each other. I feel that pain over those comments, and my apologies.”
In a public Facebook message posted Thursday night after the forum, Katz called on Arminio to withdraw his candidacy for “demeaning” McBride.
“We can disagree strongly about policy, politics, and the direction of our country. We can debate those differences vigorously. That is part of our democracy,” Katz wrote. “But disagreement is not an excuse for disrespect. When someone seeking public office is given an opportunity to correct his conduct, acknowledges his mistake, receives an explicit warning, and then repeats that conduct, it raises serious concerns about the standards we should expect from those who seek to represent us.”
“This is bigger than party and bigger than politics,” Katz continued. “We can disagree without demeaning one another, debate without abandoning basic respect, and recognize the common humanity and dignity of every person.”
Katz supports banning transgender girls and women athletes from sports activities matching their gender identity, according to his campaign website.
While Arminio’s campaign has mostly focused on affordability, reducing US involvement in foreign conflicts, and increasing immigration enforcement, his responses to a 2026 iVoterGuide questionnaire indicate numerous anti-LGBTQ+ policy positions.
The questionnaire shows that he is a Roman Catholic and “strongly agreed” with the following statements:
- “Attempts to physically or socially transition a child to the opposite sex constitute child abuse.”
- “Biological males should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports or occupy biological women’s spaces whether it be bathrooms, locker rooms, sorority houses, women’s shelters, or prison.”
- “Marriage is a God-ordained, sacred and legal union of one man and one woman. No government has the authority to alter this definition.”
McBride will likely beat Arminio. Republicans have not won Delaware’s single US House seat since 2008, and the Cook Partisan Voter Index rates the district as Democrat-leaning.
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