Facing a barrage of Republican anti-trans ads, some Democrats are changing how they respond

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Two years ago, President Donald Trump’s campaign buried then-Vice President Kamala Harris with ads on transgender issues as he stormed back into the White House.

Now, Democrats are confronting a fresh wave of attacks that sound like Trump’s – and this time, after a party reckoning about how to address the topic with voters, they are responding more forcefully.

Some Democrats in competitive races are stating their clear opposition to trans athletes playing in girls’ sports teams or even saying they oppose trans “ideology.” Candidates like James Talarico in the Texas Senate race are trying to reconcile past positions receiving new scrutiny. And others, like former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, are downplaying certain issues altogether, noting their states already have laws addressing them.

Some of the candidates’ strategies have proven controversial within the party and among advocates for transgender people, who fear further marginalization of their community, but praise from other Democrats who believe the party needs to defuse the issue.

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A CNN poll released Wednesday found that transgender issues were less important voters in the midterm than 10 other issues that were tested, starting with the economy. But asked who they sided more with on transgender issues, voters gave the GOP an edge.

According to data from AdImpact, GOP advertisers spent more than $60 million airing more than 190 TV ads that reference transgender policies since the start of the year.

Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur, whose redrawn district went for Trump by almost 11 points in 2024, has been rebuked by some Democrats in her district for airing ads recently that note she “voted with Republicans to keep transgender ideology out of schools.” The Democratic Party in Lucas County, home to Kaptur’s hometown of Toledo, called on her Tuesday to take down the ads, saying she “stooped” to the level of Republicans.

Kaptur’s campaign stood by the general message of the ads in a statement, saying she “supports parents having more insight into their children’s education.”

The LGBT advocacy group Equality Ohio changed its rating of Kaptur from “B” to “D” after her latest ads. The group also downgraded Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for governor, from “A” to “B” after she said in June that she does “not support boys playing in girls’ sports.”

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“Targeting trans people isn’t the winning strategy some people think it is,” Equality Ohio’s CEO and executive director, Dwayne Steward, said in a statement. “Real leadership means refusing this culture war bait, not reaching for it.”

Texas Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who like Kaptur is running in a district redrawn by Republicans targeting him, said his responding directly to anti-trans rhetoric helped him keep his seat two years ago even as South Texas shifted sharply to the right. In one 2024 ad , he says in Spanish, “I have never promoted sex changes.”

“I took some very heavy pushback,” he told CNN, “and I think they were all wrong and we were right.”

In 2024, Trump’s campaign hammered Harris with ads using the tagline, “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you.” The attack stemmed from comments that Harris made in 2019 expressing support for gender-affirming care for transgender people in federal prison.

Harris later conceded in her memoir that it was a “winning message” and that her campaign should have “given even more attention to how we might mitigate Trump’s attacks.”

“It wasn’t that Vice President Harris had a certain view on an issue, it was that Trump made it look like it was the No. 1 issue for her,” said Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, whom Democrats credit with effectively handling the issue in his 2023 reelection campaign and is now a potential 2028 presidential contender.

Then came the 2025 Virginia governor’s race, when Republican nominee Winsome Earle-Sears blanketed the airwaves with ads that characterized Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee, as “being for they/them.” Spanberger responded with ads calling to “get politics out of our schools and trust parents and local communities.” She won by 15 points.

Tyler Hack, executive director of the Christopher Street Project, a transgender advocacy group, said Spanberger showed the way because she took on the issue head-on “but also didn’t throw anyone under the bus.” The Human Rights Campaign cited Spanberger’s response in its guidance for 2026 candidates , which in part urges them to “address concerns directly.”

“There’s a school of thought that says, don’t answer the attacks, you give them more airtime. In practicality, that’s not helpful,” one national Democratic strategist said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss campaign tactics. “It’s important because once you neutralize the attack, you can run the campaign you want to run.”

Alaska Senate nominee Mary Peltola, running in a state Trump won two years ago by 13 points, embodies the direct approach. She says in a direct-to-camera ad, “No, I don’t want kids getting surgery to change genders or men in girls’ bathrooms.”

In Texas, Talarico has deployed a more nuanced strategy. After previously voting against restrictions on transgender athletes in the state House, he told Fox News he would “oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it risks safety or fairness.”

Other Democrats have tried to push back more obliquely, invoking their own experience as parents and saying they will always protect kids, without even mentioning transgender people.

And then some Democrats have been more dismissive. That was the message of a recent ad by Brown, which opens with Ohioans appearing to express exasperation with the Republican focus on transgender people.

“In Ohio, it’s against the law to perform transgender surgeries on kids,” one man says. “That’s right — it’s illegal.”

Rep. Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat who co-chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, said he liked Brown’s strategy the best, likening it to a tennis match.

“A slam we have is the economy,” Pocan said. “Hit (the transgender attack) back over the net and just get ready to win the game, and I think Sherrod Brown showed the classiest, most intellectual way to do it that was very real and really honest.”

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两年前，唐纳德·特朗普总统重返白宫之际，他的竞选团队利用跨性别问题投放广告，彻底击败了时任副总统卡马拉·哈里斯。

现在，民主党人正面临着新一轮的攻击，这些攻击听起来像是特朗普的攻击——这一次，在党内认真思考如何向选民解释这一问题之后，他们的回应更加有力。

一些在竞争激烈的选战中参选的民主党人明确表示反对跨性别运动员参加女子运动队，甚至声称反对跨性别“意识形态”。像德克萨斯州参议员候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科这样的人，正试图调和自己过去受到重新审视的立场。而另一些人，例如俄亥俄州前参议员谢罗德·布朗，则完全淡化了某些问题，并指出他们所在的州已经有相关法律规定。

一些候选人的策略在党内和跨性别者权益倡导者中引发了争议，他们担心跨性别群体会进一步被边缘化，但其他民主党人则称赞这些策略，认为该党需要缓和这个问题。

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CNN周三公布的一项民调显示，在本次中期选举中，跨性别议题对选民的重要性低于其他10个受调查议题，其中经济议题位列前茅。但当被问及在跨性别议题上更倾向于哪一方时，选民则更倾向于共和党。

根据 AdImpact 的数据，自今年年初以来，共和党广告商花费超过 6000 万美元播放了 190 多条提及跨性别政策的电视广告。

俄亥俄州众议员玛西·卡普图尔（Marcy Kaptur）的选区在2024年大选中以近11个百分点的优势支持特朗普。近日，她因播放一些广告而遭到选区内部分民主党人的谴责。这些广告指出，她“曾与共和党人一起投票，阻止跨性别意识形态进入学校”。卡普图尔的家乡托莱多所在的卢卡斯县民主党周二呼吁她撤下这些广告，称她“堕落”到了与共和党人相同的水平。

卡普图尔的竞选团队在一份声明中坚持广告的总体信息，称她“支持家长更多地了解孩子的教育”。

在卡普图尔发布最新广告后，LGBT权益倡导组织“俄亥俄州平等协会”将其评级从“B”下调至“D”。该组织此前还将民主党州长候选人艾米·阿克顿的评级从“A”下调至“B”，原因是阿克顿在6月份表示“不支持男孩参加女孩的体育运动”。

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“针对跨性别者并非某些人认为的制胜策略，”俄亥俄州平等协会首席执行官兼执行董事德韦恩·斯图尔德在一份声明中表示。“真正的领导力意味着拒绝这种文化战争的诱饵，而不是迎合它。”

德克萨斯州众议员维森特·冈萨雷斯（Vicente Gonzalez）和卡普图尔（Kaptur）一样，都在共和党人重新划分选区以针对他的竞选活动中参选。冈萨雷斯表示，两年前，尽管德克萨斯州南部迅速右倾，但他直接回应反跨性别言论的策略帮助他保住了席位。在2024年的一则竞选广告中，他用西班牙语说道：“我从未提倡过变性手术。”

“我遭到了非常强烈的反对，”他告诉 CNN，“但我认为他们都错了，我们是对的。”

2024年，特朗普竞选团队用“卡马拉代表他们/她们，特朗普总统代表你们”的口号猛烈抨击哈里斯。此次攻击源于哈里斯在2019年发表的言论，她当时表示支持为联邦监狱中的跨性别者提供性别肯定治疗。

哈里斯后来在她的回忆录中承认，这是一个“制胜信息”，她的竞选团队应该“更加重视如何减轻特朗普的攻击”。

“并非副总统哈里斯对某个问题持有某种特定观点，而是特朗普让这个问题看起来像是她最关心的问题，”肯塔基州州长安迪·贝希尔说道。民主党人认为他在2023年的连任竞选中有效地处理了这个问题，而他现在也是2028年总统大选的潜在竞争者。

随后是2025年弗吉尼亚州州长竞选，共和党候选人温瑟姆·厄尔-西尔斯铺天盖地地投放广告，将民主党候选人阿比盖尔·斯潘伯格描绘成“他们/她们的代言人”。斯潘伯格则以广告回应，呼吁“将政治从学校中清除出去，信任家长和当地社区”。最终，她以15个百分点的优势获胜。

跨性别权益倡导组织“克里斯托弗街项目”的执行主任泰勒·哈克表示，斯潘伯格树立了榜样，因为她直面这个问题，“但也没有出卖任何人”。人权运动组织在其2026年总统候选人指南中引用了斯潘伯格的回应，该指南部分内容敦促候选人“直接回应公众关切”。

一位不愿透露姓名的民主党全国策略师在谈到竞选策略时表示：“有一种观点认为，不要回应攻击，那样只会给攻击提供更多曝光机会。但实际上，这样做并无益处。重要的是，一旦你化解了攻击，你就可以按照自己的意愿开展竞选活动了。”

阿拉斯加州参议员候选人玛丽·佩尔托拉（Mary Peltola）代表了这种直截了当的竞选方式。两年前，特朗普在该州以13个百分点的优势获胜。她在一段直接对着镜头的竞选广告中说：“不，我不想让孩子们接受变性手术，也不想让男人进入女厕所。”

在德克萨斯州，塔拉里科采取了更为微妙的策略。此前，他曾在州众议院投票反对限制跨性别运动员参赛，之后他告诉福克斯新闻，如果跨性别运动员参加女子体育比赛会危及安全或公平，他将“反对跨性别运动员参赛”。

其他民主党人则试图以更委婉的方式进行反击，他们援引自己作为父母的经历，表示将永远保护孩子，甚至没有提及跨性别者。

而一些民主党人则对此不屑一顾。布朗最近发布的一则广告就传达了这种信息，广告开头展现了俄亥俄州民众对共和党人关注跨性别者问题表示不满的画面。

“在俄亥俄州，给孩子做变性手术是违法的，”一位男士说。“没错——这是违法的。”

威斯康星州民主党众议员马克·波坎是国会平等核心小组的联合主席，他表示最喜欢布朗的策略，并将其比作一场网球比赛。

“我们最大的优势在于经济，”波坎说道。“把（针对跨性别者的攻击）反击回去，准备好赢得比赛。我认为谢罗德·布朗展现了最优雅、最理智的处理方式，既真实又坦诚。”