It Appears Democrats Have Finally Picked A Hill To Die On

Democrats are doubling down on left-wing gender ideology despite their viewpoints being increasingly unpopular with the average American.

The vast majority of Americans support reversing the Biden administration’s extreme approach to transgender issues, including barring biological males from participating in women’s sports. But Democratic lawmakers, including those representing congressional districts President Donald Trump won in November, are continuing to push left-wing stances on transgender issues that are seemingly at odds with their own voters.

“Rather than changing course and abandoning the destructive transgender agenda, Democrats are ignoring what the majority of Americans know to be true just to appease the radical wing of their party,” Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, told the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “I hope Democrats keep running campaigns that focus on the transgender agenda; it will make Republican candidates’ cycles much easier.”

Schilling’s firm spent more than $18 million on transgender issues-focused ads nationally during the 2024 election cycle — and to great effect.

Highlighting former Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party as being too far left on transgenderissues was one of the most effective advertising campaigns in rallying support for Trump and GOP candidates down the ballot during the 2024 election cycle, according to multiplereports.

The Trump campaign spent roughly one-third of its advertising budget on Harris’ left-wing views on transgender issues, according to an ABC News report.

Despite surveys suggesting that transgender issues rank low on the totem pole of motivating issues to voters, seeing ads that excoriated Democrats for caving to transgender activists at the expense of women and girls appeared to resonate with voters.

Harris’ leading super PAC estimated that voters shifted 2.7 percentage points in Trump’s favor after watching a popular ad featuring radio host Charlamagne the God bashing the Democratic nominee for being too left-wing on transgender issues.

“Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners,” Charlamagne asserted with proof. “Hell no I don’t want my taxpayer dollars going to that.

“Kamala is for they/them, Donald Trump is for you,” that ad continued.

Harris’ campaign reportedly produced a series of ads to refute the Trump campaign’s talking points that exposed the Democratic nominee as being radical on cultural issues, but found that none of them swayed voters.

Most Americans recognize clear biological differences between men and women. They are also concerned that allowing biological males to compete in girls and women’s sports will negatively impact the safety of female athletes and fair play, according to recent polling.

Approximately 79% of Americans oppose biological males competing in women’s sports, according to a New York Times-Survey conducted between Jan. 2 and Jan. 10.

Nearly 70% of Democrats or participants who “lean Democrat” told the Times they opposed transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

That may come as a surprise to congressional Democrats who continue to vote “no” on legislation that would keep men out of women’s sports.

A staggering 206 House Democrats voted against legislation offered by Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube to bar transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports on Jan. 14.

Just two Democratic lawmakers, Texas Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, who represent socially conservative districts that Trump won, backed the bill.

However, eleven other House Democrats who are in Trump districts, voted “no” or “present” on the bill despite many of their constituents supporting legislation to bar men from women’s sports.

Only Democratic Nevada Rep. Susie Lee put out a statement explaining her opposition, calling the women’s sports protection bill “extreme” and “government overreach at its finest.” The president narrowly defeated Harris in her district.

Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi of New York, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Don Davis of North Carolina also withheld their support for the bill despite Trump winning more than 50% of the vote in districts they represent.

“Every Democrat who voted against keeping biological males out of girls’ sports is showing the American people that they care more about bowing to the radical left than protecting young women,” Congressional Leadership Fund spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole told the DCNF.

The bill has yet to be taken up by the Senate where it faces uncertain prospects due the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold.

Three other Democratic lawmakers who represent Trump districts and voted against the women’s sports bill, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine and California Reps. Josh Harder and Adam Gray, have also been silent on their home states defying the president’s executive order on women’s sports.

The executive order interprets federal IX rules to prohibit transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports and directs agencies to withhold federal funding from schools that refuse to comply.

Both Maine and California’s governing bodies for high school sports havepledged to continue allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports in defiance of Trump’s executive order, which he signed on Feb. 5.

A biological male athlete won a girls’ high school pole vaulting competition in Maine on Feb. 7.

Trump tore into Democratic Maine Governor Janet Mills for not complying with his “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order during a meeting with a bipartisan group of governors on Friday. “You better comply, you better comply, because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding,” the president told Mills.

The Department of Education subsequently announced the agency was opening a Title IX investigation into the state’s education department and one school district for violating the executive order following Trump and Mills’ heated exchange.

Spokespersons for Golden, Gray and Harder did not respond to the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation’s multiple requests for comment about whether their states should adhere to Trump’s executive order.

Other Democratic lawmakers, such as Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, appeared to moderate their views on transgender issues following the election, only to close ranks and join with their Democratic colleagues in opposing legislation to protect women’s sports and their access to women-only spaces.

“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” Moulton told the Times on Nov. 7. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

Moulton’s decision to recognize an obvious biological difference between men and women drew consternation from left-wing activists that protested his district office, his campaign manager who promptly resigned and Democratic Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey.

He voted against House Republicans’ women’s sports bill less than two months later, claiming the legislation went “too far” and is “extreme.”

Despite Democrats’ reticence to articulate their views on transgender issues, a majority of voters appear to support legislation and the president’s executive actions to protect women’s sports and end federal support for child sex changes.

“Anyone who has been paying attention to this election cycle shouldn’t be surprised that President Trump’s executive orders asserting there are only two sexes and protecting women’s sports are, by even legacy media’s standards, extremely popular,” Schilling told the DCNF.

Democratic Party leaders are still looking for an effective retort to GOP messaging accusing them of being radical on transgender issues.

At the Democratic National Committee’s candidate forum to lead the party on Jan. 31, MSNBC host Symone Sanders asked the candidates how the party should have responded to the Trump campaign’s transgender-focused ads.

Former Democratic Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley gave a brief statement about the importance of universal dignity before calling the issue a “distraction” and quickly pivoted to attacking Trump for being friends with Elon Musk.

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