Dem releases “ill-advised” dog whistle ad against trans student athletes

Texas U.S. House Rep. Colin Allred (D) has become the first national Democratic candidate ever to release a TV ad responding to Republican transphobic attacks.

“I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports,” Allred says in a new ad. The ad is a response to several aired on behalf of his Republican opponent for the U.S. Senate, anti-LGBTQ+ Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Cruz’s ads have attacked Allred for supporting the Equality Act — a federal law that would ban anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination — and opposing a national Republican ban on trans athletes in sports.

Related:

Republican AGs ask Supreme Court to let states ban trans people from sports

They say the Constitution protects a state’s right to discriminate against trans people.

Trans advocates have insinuated that Allred’s ad is transphobic and needless, seeing as most American voters aren’t concerned about transgender athletes. Recent polling shows that Allred is three to five percent behind Cruz among state voters.

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“Ted Cruz is lying again, but now he’s lying about our children,” Allred says at the beginning of his new ad. “I’m a dad, I’m also a Christian. My faith has taught me that all kids are God’s kids. So let me be clear: I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports or any of this ridiculous stuff that Ted Cruz is saying.”

The ad then shows imagery of Cruz in an airport in February 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing a Texas flag and taking a flight to Cancun, Mexico during a historic ice storm that killed at least 246 Texans and left millions without heating or electricity.

“Ted Cruz is lying about my record because he can’t defend his own,” Allred then says as the screen fills with text from four publications that accuse Cruz of lying at various points from 2015 through 2024. “He has done nothing to secure the border. He wants to raise the retirement age for social security. He’s full of it. You know that. I’m Colin Allred, and I approve this message.”

Colin Allred out with a response to what's now three GOP TV ads hammering him over trans issues.

"Let me be clear: I don't want boys playing girls' sports, or any of this ridiculous stuff Ted Cruz is saying." pic.twitter.com/mSEkIq8a6y

— David Weigel (@daveweigel) October 11, 2024

Three weeks ago, Cruz released an ad stating, “Somehow it’s become controversial to say that boys and girls are different, but they are. Colin Allred supports boys playing in girls’ sports.”

As proof of its claim, the ad notes that Allred voted against H.R. 734, the so-called “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” during an April 2023 vote. The bill (which has not become law) would amend Title IX regulations so that “individuals whose biological sex at birth was male” cannot “participate in programs that are for women and girls.”

Allred also supports The Equality Act, legislation that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to pre-existing federal anti-discrimination laws. The act would explicitly prohibit gender discrimination in education and, therefore, school sports. However, Republican attorneys general would likely challenge trans-inclusion in scholastic sports, just as they’ve opposed the Biden Administration’s interpretation of Title IX to forbid anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in public schools.

In September, Cruz released another anti-trans ad against Allred, stating, “Our girls are being left in the dust, robbed of their right to compete freely. Allred voted in Congress to oppose Texas State law that protects women’s sports. Colin Allred voted to allow boys in girls bathrooms, boys in girls locker rooms, boys in girls sports. That’s not competition. That’s not fair.”

Allred’s campaign told the Texas Tribune that Cruz’s ad was a “disgusting, false attack, and another example of how Ted Cruz only wants to divide Texans.”

Cruz will “say anything to distract from his dangerous abortion ban that is putting women’s lives at risk, trying to raise the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare and fleeing to Cancun during a deadly winter storm,” Josh Stewart, an Allred spokesperson, said in a statement.

Cruz has reportedly spent $6.7 million on ads against Allred. The ads are part of a $65 million spending blitz by Republicans nationwide to air transphobic political ads in a bid to win suburban female voters.

Trans journalist Erin Reed called Allred’s response “ill-advised” and wrote that, although Allred’s ad doesn’t specifically mention transgender people, his line about “boys playing girls’ sports” is “likely to be heard as an anti-trans dogwhistle in Texas, where nearly every anti-trans ad has framed transgender girls as ‘boys.'”

“Since Allred had full control over the messaging in the ad, he could have avoided the dogwhistle by being clearer about his views and support for transgender youth,” Reed said. Allred will debate Cruz on Tuesday.

Regardless, polling indicates that most voters aren’t worried about trans athletes and are less likely to support transphobic political candidates.

While a 2023 Gallup poll showed that only 26% of Americans think trans athletes should be allowed to play on sports teams that fit their gender identity, polls in five battleground states conducted by The New York Times and Siena College show that majorities of Americans think society should accept transgender people’s gender identities.

Recent HRC polling shows that only 5% of voters say they’re concerned about gender-affirming care — comparatively, 52% are more concerned about economic inflation raising the cost of living. Additionally, 61% said they won’t support candidates who support banning gender-affirming care — including 41% of Republicans.

A June poll by the Texas Politics Project found that state voters care about immigration and border security, the economy, inflation, abortion and women’s rights — trans issues didn’t rank amongst the voters’ top concerns.

Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, told The Houston Chronicle that while Cruz’s ads don’t resonate with most Texas voters’ concerns, they’re designed to inflame the Republican base so that they show up to vote against Allred in the November elections.

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