Pro-Trump forces flood airwaves with ads attacking Harris over past transgender stances

Over the first half of October, former President Donald Trump and his allies poured more than $21 million into television ads attacking Vice President Kamala Harris over her past support of certain rights for transgender people – a message they have spread during nationally televised NFL games, college football broadcasts and in battleground states.

It’s a staggering sum to spend on a topic that most voters say isn’t a top priority for them this election. But Trump’s campaign is betting any voters still choosing between the two candidates can be swayed to take sides in a cultural fight that has torn apart state houses and school boards in recent years – one that has put tremendous focus on an incredibly small, marginalized group that already faces discrimination-based violence. Republicans in key Senate races have mirrored that messaging as part of a playbook painting Democrats as out of touch with most voters.

At the center of the ads are positions, first reported by CNN’s KFile last month, that Harris took as a candidate for president during the 2020 primary, when she supported taxpayer-funded gender-affirming care for detained immigrants and federal prisoners, as already required by federal law.

“Kamala’s agenda is they/them, not you,” says one ad, referring to the pronouns used by some transgender and non-binary individuals. The Trump campaign put nearly $14 million behind the ad in the first two weeks of the month.

Asked by Fox News’ Bret Baier on Wednesday about her current stance, Harris said she would follow the law, while alluding to a New York Times report that outlined the Bureau of Prisons provided gender-affirming services under the Trump administration. The Trump campaign disputed the report.

Even before launching his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump escalated his rhetoric against the LGBTQ community – specifically transgender Americans – in ways that he largely avoided in the lead up to his 2016 win and throughout his four years in Washington. At an appearance in July 2022, Trump voiced his opposition to transgender women participating in women’s athletics, marveling at the applause it generated and insisting his advisers had advocated against including it in his remarks.

“They said don’t do it,” Trump said. “And it gets the biggest hand. It’s crazy.”

Early in his latest White House bid, Trump vowed to punish hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors — a rare outcome that is typically pursued after counseling and other prescribed treatments. He would also target schools and teachers that inform children they could be “trapped in the wrong body,” his campaign website said. He has recently falsely claimed that schools are secretly sending children for gender-affirming surgeries.  And his riff on transgender women competing in sports still draws the loudest support at his rallies.

Until now, however, much of that rhetoric had been aimed at his supporters. So far in October, out of a total of about $66 million that the Trump campaign and allied outside groups spent on broadcast TV ads, roughly a third – $21 million – went to ads about “LGBTQ rights,” according to data from the campaign advertisement tracker AdImpact. Nearly all feature clips of Harris from four years ago expressing support for pro-transgender policies.

The ads outpaced nearly every other topic Republicans have put in advertisements trying to sway the public during a critical closing stretch of the race – ahead of crime, inflation and immigration, and behind only taxation. As pro-Trump advertisers have put more money behind ads attacking transgender policies, economic messaging has also been a consistent, though shifting, point of emphasis. In August, inflation was a top issue, referenced in nearly a quarter of GOP advertising by broadcast spending. But in the months since, as inflation has continued to slow, that’s been supplanted by other issues such as taxation, which has risen to the top issue in pro-Trump advertising in October.

The top ad from the Trump campaign in October so far is an attack that calls Harris’ support for laws requiring prisoners to be provided with medical care, including gender-affirming care, “insane.” Another similar ad from the Trump campaign, with more than $2 million behind it this month, echoes that line. “It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Even the liberal media was shocked Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners and illegal aliens,” the ad says.

Harris’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment. But asked to respond to one of the Trump campaign’s ads during Wednesday’s Fox interview, Harris argued that Trump’s team was focused on an issue most voters care little about.

“I think he spent $20 million on those ads trying to create a sense of fear in the voters,” she said, “because he actually has no plan in this election that is about focusing on the needs of the American people.”