James Carville: Democrats will follow Gavin Newsom on trans athlete debate

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville is predicting others within his party will follow California Gov. Gavin Newsom in speaking out against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports. 

Newsom made headlines earlier this month over his pivot to objecting to biological males participating in women’s sports, calling it “deeply unfair” in a podcast conversation with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. 

“I think that’s a view that most Americans have,” Carville reacted in an interview with Digital. 

“I’m not that big into the state track meet, but athletic administrators can figure this out,” he continued. “It’s not a major issue to me, and we took on a lot of water for something we weren’t gonna [address].”

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A poll conducted by The New York Times in January found that nearly 80% of Americans oppose biological males in women’s sports, including a whopping 67% of Democrats. 

Carville sounded the alarm about the unpopular stance Democratic officials have embraced on the issue.

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“If you think the issue is that important, then you got to convince people,” Carville said. “They’re telling people we got to be courageous and be for this. Why don’t you change public opinion and win an election, and then you might be able to achieve your goal? But right now the public doesn’t want it. And you’re asking Democrats to do this. And all you’re doing — they are not going to change in the short term for sure. And all you’re doing is helping the opposition.” 

“Newsom said it. [Massachusetts Democratic Rep.] Seth Moulton said it. I suspect you’re gonna have more come out with it,” he added. 

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted to Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk that trans athletes playing in women’s sports is “deeply unfair.” (Screenshot/This is Gavin Newsom)

Despite it being a rare 80-20 issue for Americans, Democrats continue to advocate for the unpopular view. Earlier this month, Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. 

But Carville didn’t think his party was in the wrong by blocking the bill. 

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Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, blocked a bill that would have banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“I think that this is an issue of the athletic associations,” Carville said. “The governor of Utah, all right, Governor Cox — they gave him an anti-trans sports bill. And he said, ‘Look, I have 100,000 high school athletes in the state of Utah. I got four that are trans. This is not my problem.’ Somebody said that 50,000 women athletes in the NCAA and maybe six [are transgender]. Let the NCAA figure it out. That’s not a state legislature problem. Let the Olympics deal with it.” 

“I actually used to run track. So I watch the NCAA track meet. I never think about it! It doesn’t cross my mind. I don’t think there needs to be a legislative solution to this… That’s not a legislative issue. It’s an issue for the associations. We don’t need to have anything that detracts from the association’s ability to determine eligibility rules in any sport,” he added. 

‘ Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.