WASHINGTON — Democratic candidates in competitive House races are bankrolling ads claiming they are champions of fairness and willing to buck their party to protect girls’ sports — despite voting records showing they’ve either supported transgender rights or kept quiet on the issue.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who is currently polling neck-and-neck with her GOP opponent Derek Merrin, declared in a recent 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.”
But Kaptur’s voting record in the House shows the opposite. Last year, the Ohio Democrat opposed — along with 205 other members of her caucus — the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which bans schools from letting biological males compete in female sports.
Rep. Don Davis (D-NC), who is also in a tough re-election race, voted “present” on the same legislation — but states in an ad for his campaign that “there should always be a safe and fair space for women and girls in sports.”
“Fair competition was at the heart of those games, but let’s be honest, there’s real concerns about fairness and safety,” Davis also says in the ad. “That’s why I believe states should decide what’s right for protecting women and girls, and North Carolina has decided.”
In 2023, Davis didn’t even attend a House vote on the same bill, while Kaptur opposed the legislation.
Both House Democrats are also co-sponsors of the Equality Act, which critics have noted would essentially abolish sex-based distinctions in sports.
Other Democrats who are making their first runs for Congress have claimed they support fairness in girls’ sports as well — only to be undermined by their voting records in state legislatures.
Sarah Trone Garriott, an Iowa state senator running for the US House against incumbent Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, claimed in one ad: “I oppose letting men in women’s locker rooms and voted to let parents, not politicians, make decisions for their kids.”
But Trone Garriott voted to allow biological men in women’s locker rooms by opposing a bill that eventually banned the practice when Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed it into law in 2023.
She also voted against a 2022 bill, which Reynolds also signed, prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
Democratic House candidate Lindsay James, who is hoping to win election to GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson’s vacant seat, also opposed both measures when they came through the Iowa House.
Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Americans at least expressed concern about “transgender athletes competing on sports teams that don’t match their sex at birth,” according to a new analysis from the Pew Research Center — while just 13% said they would be comfortable with that trend.
Even most Democrats (55%) said they wouldn’t be comfortable with transgender competitors participating on teams that don’t match their birth sex.
But 44% said they would be somewhat, extremely or very comfortable with that.
Democrats lead by more than eight percentage points on the generic congressional ballot, per the latest RealClearPolitics polling average, making them favorites to retake the House in the Nov. 3 midterms.
Reps for the Kaptur, Davis, Trone Garriott and James campaigns did not respond to requests for comment.
