Republicans have spent astronomical amounts of money this election cycle attacking Democrats over policies affecting transgender people, with very little pushback.
Trans rights advocates say they’re disappointed in how some Democratic candidates are countering the messaging, arguing that some of them are actually backpedaling on their records of supporting LGBTQ+ rights.
“I think for a lot of candidates, there is unease about being vocally in support of trans people because of the concern around them being used to fan the flames of opposition, to give the other candidate something to attack further,” said Landon Richie, the policy director of the nonpartisan Transgender Education Network of Texas, which does not endorse candidates.
Republicans have poured $82 million into competitive Senate races to run anti-trans ads. As of Oct. 24, Democrats running for the U.S. Senate have spent about $9 million countering these attacks, according to Axios. Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has dropped $29 million on ads about everything from transgender athletes to gender-affirming surgeries for minors in recent weeks, according to The Bulwark. The ads, which all end with the slogan “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,” have bombarded battleground state residents turning on their TVs to catch a game.
But much of the criticism on how Democratic candidates navigate these attacks comes from their own base rather than Republicans.
Former Illinois Rep. Marie Newman, an outspoken LGBTQ+ rights advocate, said Republicans are “at war” with multiple marginalized communities, so “trying to fight each fire is really tough” for Democratic candidates. But Newman said she still hoped Democrats would say more on this topic.
“I wish they were being a little bit more vigorous on, particularly, these really horrifying trans ads because it is really putting fuel in the fire,” Newman said.
Down the ballot, Republicans have attacked vulnerable Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is in a tight race against Bernie Moreno, on transgender people’s participation in sports. The Republican Senate Leadership Fund paid for ads on the topic, prompting the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to take out its own ad to respond. The Democrats’ ad says trans girls’ participation in sports is “already banned” in Ohio and features a clip of a newscaster saying, “We can verify the claim that Brown voted to let transgender biological men participate in women’s sports is false.”
Trans rights supporters say the Democrats’ messaging buys into the anti-trans narrative Republicans are setting.
“He is ceding so much ground in the usage of absolutely abhorrent clips,” Dara Adkison, the executive director of TransOhio, said of Brown. TransOhio doesn’t endorse candidates. “I know that he doesn’t even believe that. That’s all the more shittier perspective about that strategy, and I don’t know what his team is thinking that’s helping to accomplish.”
Brown’s campaign and the DSCC did not respond to requests for comment.
Rep. Colin Allred faced a similar wave of ads in his Senate race against Ted Cruz. Republicans targeted Allred for his vote against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, which would have used Title IX to ban trans women from participating in women’s sports in schools. Cruz challenged Allred on it at the candidates’ debate, and Allred responded, “I don’t support boys playing girls’ sports,” which was also the position he took in an ad his own campaign launched days earlier.
“It’s really disappointing when those who purport to be our allies sort of flounder and shy away from standing up in defense of trans people,” Richie said, adding Allred’s response was part of a nationwide trend of Democrats engaging in “verbal backtracking” about their voting records.
“When we as trans people, as an organization, respond to misinformation and disinformation, we don’t repeat the language used, the rhetoric used, because repetition legitimizes,” Richie said. He added Allred’s language concerns trans people who are left wondering, “If this politician claims to have my back, what does that actually look like if they can’t talk about me in a supportive way?”
In a statement to NOTUS, Allred’s campaign manager, Paige Hutchinson, said Allred has “been an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, proudly supporting passage of legislation enshrining marriage equality into law and voting to protect Texans from discrimination” and that he “believes we must stand united against all forms of prejudice and discrimination.”
NOTUS asked the Allred campaign about his repetition of the phrase “boys in girls’ sports” in his responses, a phrase that has been used in anti-trans messaging. The campaign replied in part with a link to a video of an MSNBC reporter asking Allred whether he supports “boys playing girls’ sports.” In the video, Allred doubled down in his answer: “As I said in the ad, of course I don’t support that,” before adding he doesn’t think “folks should be discriminated against.”
Republicans’ huge investment in anti-trans attacks puts Democratic candidates in a tough spot with how they choose to respond.
“We think it can be complicated because of just how polarizing this discussion has become in our society, particularly around what is truth and what is medically accepted advice seemingly being discarded. It is hard for candidates to be able to speak on this issue and share truth and insight and not be vilified,” said Orie Givens, a spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund.
Just this week, Vice President Kamala Harris was asked on Charlamagne Tha God’s podcast about her position on taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgery for transgender people who are incarcerated, which she supported during the 2019 presidential primary.
Federal law requires that all necessary medical care, including gender-affirming treatments, be provided to people who are incarcerated, and U.S. prisons followed these laws during Trump’s administration. Harris called the ads by Trump’s campaign “disinformation and misinformation” and pivoted to Trump’s plan “to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.”
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, pointed out Democrats’ tonal shift in their advocacy for trans rights. The Ohio senator mentioned “how radically the Democrats leaned into this stuff four years ago and how much Kamala Harris is running away from it today” on Joe Rogan’s podcast on Thursday. Harris’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Democratic strategy testing results from September, reviewed by The New York Times, showed Trump’s anti-trans messaging was some of his campaign’s most effective. Republican strategists told the Times that GOP candidates are trying to court college-educated suburban white women with the attacks.
It’s a marked shift from when Republicans’ push for policies like bathroom bills was politically damaging in 2016. Now, anti-trans bills are commonplace. Laws have restricted access to gender-affirming care for minors in more than half the states, according to data from the Human Rights Campaign, and two states, Florida and Utah, have even made it a criminal offense for trans people to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity.
Some trans advocates said they’ve found some of Harris’ answers to questions about transgender people’s health care to be more palatable.
Harris was pressed about whether she supported gender-affirming care for trans people by NBC News’ Hallie Jackson in a sit-down on Oct. 22. “I think we should follow the law,” Harris answered, before referencing Trump’s spending of “tens of millions of dollars” on anti-trans ads.
“That is a decision that doctors will make in terms of what is medically necessary. I’m not going to put myself in a position of a doctor,” Harris said, before also pivoting to talking points about the Affordable Care Act.
Richie said Harris’ response was “very clear” and that she was “alluding to that federal law mandating that incarcerated people have access to necessary medical care.”
Adkison thought more work could be done on Harris’ answers but said they “deeply understand where Harris’ responses are coming from.” They added they wish Harris’ messaging was more specific, especially considering the amount of state-level legislation targeting trans people’s access to gender-affirming care or regulating which bathrooms they can use.
“Speaking as an Ohioan, we are in a state right now that has had some really terrible laws passed,” Adkison said. “Hearing someone talk about, ‘Well, I adhere to the law,’ OK, I’m going to assume you’re talking about federal judges and federal law that you’re hoping, in your presidency, would supersede bad things at the state level.”
Lisa Bunker, a former New Hampshire state representative who was one of the first trans people to be elected to the state House, said they noticed Gov. Tim Walz “spoke up for trans people, and that was nice to see.” Bunker added they’re “not gonna come down hard on somebody for less than full-throated support in this moment.”
“I would hope that they would stand up for us, but I also understand you can’t fight every battle at once,” Bunker said. “I understand that teaching people about transness is a long game.”
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Emily Kennard is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.