Four Democratic candidates fighting for their political lives in competitive House races have rolled out campaign ads casting themselves as champions of girls' sports — a message that collides directly with what their own voting records show, according to a New York Post report published Monday and first flagged by Breitbart News.
The group includes two sitting incumbents and two first-time contenders, all of them spending donor money on spots that claim they're willing to break with their own party to keep biological males out of female competition.
The New York Post reported that Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), locked in a tight race against Republican Derek Merrin, addresses the issue head-on in her ad.
“I voted with Republicans to keep transgender ideology out of our schools because parents know what's best for their kids. And boys should not play in girls' sports,” Kaptur says in the spot.
Kaptur opposed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, joining 205 other members of her caucus in voting against it. The bill passed the House 218-206, with just two Texas Democrats crossing over to side with Republicans. Kaptur is also a co-sponsor of the Equality Act, which critics say would erase sex-based distinctions in athletics outright.
Rep. Don Davis (D-NC) took a different route — he voted “present” on the same bill. In his own campaign ad, the North Carolina Democrat argues that states, not Congress, should set the rules for women's sports.
Davis is running for re-election in North Carolina's newly drawn 1st Congressional District. As one recent analysis put it, a vulnerable House Democrat has suddenly discovered what a woman is — with his seat on the line.
In Iowa, state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott is challenging Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) and claiming in her ad that she opposes “letting men in women's locker rooms.” As a state legislator, she voted against a 2022 bill barring transgender athletes from girls' sports and a 2023 measure restricting locker-room access. Both were signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds. Nunn's campaign fired back with its own spot accusing her of rewriting her record.
Democratic candidate Lindsay James, running for Rep. Ashley Hinson's vacant Iowa seat, also opposed both state measures.
The New York Post story drew a blunt summary from the outlet's own social media account:
“Dems in tight races backpedal on trans messaging - after voting to support biological men in women's sports,” the @nypost account posted, linking to the report.
The timing is not accidental. The ads land as vulnerable Democrats across the map recalibrate their messaging ahead of the November midterms, while candidates in safer seats move the other way. Socialist nominee Claire Valdez recently affirmed a “Trans Bill of Rights” as a priority if Democrats take the House.
The polling explains the scramble. A Pew Research Center survey found 66 percent of Americans support requiring trans athletes to compete on teams matching their sex at birth — a position that has gained ground in recent years. Republicans are broadly united behind it; Democrats are split.
Even deep-blue Washington state is feeling the shift. Voters there will weigh in on a ballot measure banning transgender girls from girls' school sports, and internal polling conducted by Let's Go Washington — a survey of 7,500 people that has not been publicly released — shows the initiative passing with 56 percent support, including 48 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of independents.
Andrew Villeneuve, founder of the left-leaning Northwest Progressive Institute, told KUOW that voters who read the ballot language tend to back the ban. “If they do no prior research and they just open up their ballot to vote at their kitchen table … Washingtonians are poised to vote yes,” he said. The measure would require sex verification for students seeking to join girls' teams.
Our Take
Here's what these four Democrats are really telling voters: they think you're too busy to check the roll call.
Every one of these candidates had a chance to stand with girls and women — and every one of them found a reason not to. Kaptur voted no and co-sponsored the Equality Act. Davis couldn't even bring himself to vote yes or no; he hid behind “present.” Trone Garriott and James both voted against protecting female athletes and female locker rooms in Iowa, and now they want Iowans to believe they've been on the right side all along.
The ads are not a change of heart. They're a change of polling. When two-thirds of the country — including nearly half of Washington state Democrats — wants biological males out of girls' sports, the smart political play is to sound like you agree while hoping nobody pulls the voting record.
Republicans should make sure every voter in these districts sees the receipt. Nunn's campaign already has the right idea. Merrin, Hinson's would-be successor, and every conservative operation in these states should be running the roll-call votes side-by-side with the ads until Election Day.
And voters should ask themselves a simple question: if a candidate will lie to your face about something this basic, what else are they willing to say to get your vote?
