American politics is a bit more immobile than most experts suggest. Very rarely do completely modern issues appear in our campaigns and influence our choices. In fact, most campaign ads look relatively similar from cycle to cycle, covering similar topics and political priorities.
Consider the usual case advertisement which Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker runs on Facebook. Walker calls out his opponent, Sen. Raphael Warnock (R-Ga.), for voting with Joe Biden 96 percent of the time: “[That] means you believe in higher taxes, you believe in open borders, you believe in calling our men and women blue names like “thugs” and “criminals”. All of these arguments are true, all of them are very important, and none of them would have seemed out of place in a Republican Party ad even 30 years ago. Attacking the left for extremism on taxes, immigration, and crime has been a surefire blueprint for Republican electoral success for decades.
But the ultimate advertising attack is something new. “He voted for things like that,” Walker says, before adding, “He voted to put men in women’s sports.”
In just a few years, transgender issues have joined the typical Republican campaign advertising litany. In Nevada, Tulsi Gabbard (for Adam Laxalt) attacks Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto for supporting woke ideologues who “demonize police, support open borders, and believe that biological males should compete with women in sports.” In South Dakota, a woman explains how she moved to the state because GOP Gov. Kristi Noem is “pro-Second Amendment, anti-lockdown, pro-law enforcement, pro-family, and pro-women’s and girls’ sports.” In Florida, Senator Marco Rubio attacks Democrat Val Demings for allowing abortion at birth, giving $1 billion to convicted felons and illegal immigrants, and for voting “to allow transgender youth to play sports and learn radical gender identity without parental consent.”
Just a few years ago, it was arduous to find politicians who even wanted to talk about this topic. Then-sleep. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) introduced the bill in 2020, as did then-Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii). Donald Trump Jr. he spoke about it regularly in speeches. Groups like my organization, the American Principles Project, have spent millions of dollars in advertising in swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania. However, the issue did not feature as prominently in most Republican campaigns as it does today.
Attacking Democrats on this issue has always been obvious. Polls consistently show that hiring men in women’s sports is hugely unpopular – and almost every Democrat running for federal office records support for the so-called “Equality Act,” legislation that would make men playing women’s sports the law of the land. But politicians are risk-averse creatures, and it took Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia last year, largely due to his opposition to gender extremism in schools, to convince other politicians that it was worth pursuing.
Now it’s everywhere and Democrats have no answers. When Rep. Tim Ryan (R-Ohio) tried to portray his GOP Senate opponent J.D. Vance as an extremist, Vance immediately managed to turn the tables: “This is a guy who voted just a few months ago, right, for the Act on equality… which would literally remove federal funding for free and reduced school lunch programs that do not allow biological males to participate in biological female sports. The extremist, Tim, is you. Ryan received no response.
None of them have the answer. When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attacked Democrat Charlie Crist for supporting gender indoctrination in schools and pushing for men in women’s sports, Crist could only meekly respond that he saw himself as a “unifier.” In other states, such as Kansas, Democrats are more brazen in their mental gymnastics. After twice vetoing bills to address integrity in women’s sports, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is now in office displaying ads which begins with the words: “Obviously men shouldn’t play girls’ sports.” (When pressed on this contradiction, she later said the ad meant she didn’t want grown men playing girls’ sports.) In Washington state, Democratic congressional candidate Marie Gluesenkamp Perez he replied to a question about it, pausing for an agonizing amount of time, pretending not to understand what’s going on, and then attacking the woman who asked the question.
Braver Republican politicians decided to go beyond the issue of sports and introduce gender change procedures for minors. This issue too surveys exceptionally well. For example, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) is running. advertising attacks her Democratic opponent, Annie Andrews, for supporting “castration of boys”, “double mastectomy for girls” and “sex-changing hormones”. The ad explains the matter simply: “If Annie Andrews is elected to Congress, she will legalize these barbaric procedures nationwide.” DeSantis also railed against childhood gender reassignment, including it in his campaign speeches and attacking Crist during the debate (again, Crist could only respond by moving on to another topic).
Indeed, attacking the left for its gender radicalism on every front will likely become a requirement for anyone seeking to lead the Republican Party, whether in Congress or at the presidential level. The most credible potential leaders in both spheres are already doing this – Trump-aligned PACs are spending millions on mailers attacking childhood gender reassignment surgery, and rising congressional stars like Jim Banks and Marjorie Taylor Greene are busy crafting legislation to address the issue to the federal level. This problem will only get worse in the coming years. Other ambitious Republicans those who are insensitive to this issue will be left behind.
Opposing gender ideology is no longer a taboo in Republican circles and has become a central point of the party’s program. Political candidates are raising transgender issues in their districts and states because they know it is a winning issue. It has become as central to Republican campaigns as crime, immigration and the economy. If and when Republicans take over Congress, they will have a mandate to finally address the terrible consequences of gender ideology through legislation. The only question left is who will take advantage of this opportunity.
Terry Schilling is president of the American Principles Project. He is from Illinois and graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he studied political science. He lives with his wife, Katie, in Northern Virginia. He is the proud father of three girls and three boys. Follow him on Twitter at @Schilling1776.
