Mace furthers anti-trans push with speech in McBride's district

• Mace's efforts in November culminated in House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) instituting a ban on transgender men and women accessing men's and women's bathrooms, respectively, on the House side of the U.S. Capitol complex.

Driving the news: Mace is the headline speaker at a Delaware GOP reception Friday in Newark, Delaware, according to an invite shared with Axios.

• Mace will address her proposed transgender bathroom bans, "along with other key women's issues, including her Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act," her spokesperson Sydney Long told Axios.
• The event was first reported by The News Journal, a local newspaper in Wilmington, Delaware, though the contents of her speech have not been previously reported.

The other side: McBride will be attending a bipartisan event in Williamsburg, Virginia, held by the Congressional Research Service, her office told Axios.

• Said spokesperson Michaela Kurinsky-Malos: "This weekend Congresswoman McBride will attend a bipartisan meeting with her colleagues from the House to discuss solutions to the most pressing issues facing her constituents."

• McBride has largely tried to stay above the fray on Mace's bathroom crusade, calling it a "blatant attempt" to "distract from the fact that [Republicans] have no real solutions" in a November statement.

What to watch: The speech is already becoming a subject of some local controversy.

• The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware has put up a billboard in Wilmington, Delaware expressing support for McBride, spokesperson Casira Copes told Axios.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.