By The Washington Times (Politics) | Created at 2026-08-15 17:46:00 | Updated at 2026-08-15 17:59:11
52 minutes ago
AUSTIN, Texas — Democrats are doubling down on their fight to convince Americans that their transgender policies should return.
The Democratic National Committee’s LGBTQ caucus discussed at its summer meeting Friday how the GOP would deploy millions of dollars’ worth of attack ads against Democratic candidates’ transgender policy.
One such ad is already airing in Texas, caucus Chairman Sean Meloy said.
The AI ad, made by the Ken Paxton Senate campaign, is a remake of the famous President Lyndon Johnson 1964 Daisy campaign ad.
It’s retooled to bash Democratic transgender policy, with the black-and-white ad showing a little girl with long blonde hair placed on an operating table as she’s being prepared for sex reassignment surgery.
In the background, the ad’s voice-over says, “She dreams of growing up, falling in love, becoming a mother.”
The girl counts as she’s picking the petals off a daisy in a field, “one, two, three, four, five, six,” while a doctor’s voice says, “Keep counting.”
Then a gas mask is placed on her face as the doctor’s surgical mask drops from his face to reveal it’s Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico.
The voice-over says, “The transient brain plays on confused children, irreversible puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, sex change surgeries.”
Democrats say they will use the attack ads against Republicans by bringing the American people to their side on transgender policy, like how Democrats brought Americans to their side on gay marriage.
It won’t be an easy battle.
Various polls show most Americans are against male-born athletes competing in female sports, with voters saying doctors should not perform transgender surgery on minors, and that transgender people should use bathrooms assigned to their biological sex.
The Human Rights Campaign and the DNC aim to change that thinking. One DNC member described it as a “sling-shot” moment.
HRC’s Sam Alleman said the more Americans say they know transgender people, the better the chance “we have of how sympathetic someone’s going to be” toward them.
“I use that as a parable because we’ve seen attacks like this before against our community,” he said. “And we know the work that we have to do to right the ship. It is not new work … and it’s now our turn to show up for the trans community and continue doing that work and driving narrative work.”
The LGBTQ community, he said, plans to change these numbers for transgender people, like they did for gays and lesbians within 10 years, starting with a $15 million investment this midterm cycle.
He said slim House and Senate majorities make turnout and persuasion decisive.
“Anti-trans attacks are going to be used in this election at the largest scale we have ever seen them used before,” he said. “And we have to be ready and prepared for that and be ready to respond.”
The $15 million will go toward HRC’s 4 million members and supporters. Their organization, which is structured like a labor union, will let them communicate to their members and supporters, Mr. Alleman said, in “unlimited amounts about the candidates we endorse.”
He added, “We have a model, as I pointed out, that targets 74 million folks that we know vote based off our issue set.”
