Several prominent Democrats have slammed the Harris campaign’s decision to stay silent over Donald Trump’s transgender attack ads, including one who described the inaction as “malpractice.”
During the 2024 presidential campaign, one of Trump’s most-aired attack ads against Kamala Harris ended with the statement: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”
The message landed with voters and prominent Democrats even tried to intervene, urging the Harris campaign to respond directly.
“Malpractice was committed by that campaign,” Ed Rendell, the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told the New York Times.
“They saw the ad, they knew it was being bought in heavy quantities,” he said, adding that he called a Harris campaign adviser and urged them to respond. “Where were they? What were they thinking?”
Harris did respond to the attacks but with a tame 30-second message saying the negative ads were “designed to tear us apart.”
She did not reference the transgender line of attack by Trump, nor point out that one of the policies he was focusing on — taxpayer-funded gender-affirming care for inmates — was actually in place during his first administration.
The campaign pulled together a number of ads rebutting Trump, arguing that he was trying to distract from more pressing issues. But the ads did not sway voters when they were tested with focus groups, according to the Times, which spoke to four former Harris campaign aides anonymously, and were dropped.
New York Rep. Tom Suozzi and Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, both of whom have supported transgender rights in Congress in the past, were among Democrats who expressed frustration following Harris’s defeat at their party’s unwillingness to address an issue that was central to the Trump campaign’s messaging.
“The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left,” Suozzi said at the time. “ I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports. Democrats aren’t saying that, and they should be.”
Moulton added: “Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face.
“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.”
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, who was narrowly reelected, said that the party shouldn’t abandon its support for transgender rights but the messaging needs a rethink in light of the election result.
“We need to improve our messaging. I got clobbered on all the transgender messaging in my district, and it was very painful,” he told The Hill.
However, it’s not a view shared by all Democrats.
“I never heard it anywhere on the campaign trail,” Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin told the Times. He added that scapegoating a vulnerable group was “the ultimate misdirection” of the party.
When it came to what voters cared about most, the economy, democracy and national security were ranked much higher than transgender rights, according to Gallup.
LGBTQ+ rights, particularly those of trans athletes, have long been under attack by the president-elect and his right-wing coalition, sparking fear among members of the community.
During the campaign trail, Trump and his allies often spewed anti-trans rhetoric, railing against trans athletes in particular.
The president-elect vowed to ban transgender athletes from competing in sports and has made a series of false claims about transgender healthcare in the US, including the lie that kids are being offered gender transition surgeries in schools.
