Democrats have been quick to declare transgenderism a losing electoral issue in the wake of their recent victories at the ballot box, and the media is buying in.
“Republicans went all in on anti-trans messaging for the 2025 election,” declared an article by NOTUS. “It didn’t work.”
The belief is that Democrats won in 2025 elections in Virginia and New Jersey, despite an onslaught of messaging from Republicans on their radical positions on transgenderism. But Republicans are almost certainly not going to let the issue die, and the issue that proved so successful for them in 2024 will be put to the test in the 2026 midterm elections. The issue is already heating up in Nevada, and could impact the state’s governor’s race.
“I’m going to do another ballot initiative this coming cycle on men in women’s sports,” Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo (R) said at a campaign event in September, according to the Pahrump Valley Times. “I’m going to raise the money to put a fight on that and change the constitution on how we address that particular issue.”
The topic has been hot in the state since members of the University of Nevada, Reno, women’s volleyball team declined to play against San Jose State University in 2024 because of a transgender athlete on the team, with members of the Reno team taking a different stance from the university on the matter at the time.
“The student athletes at the University of Nevada, Reno have determined that they do not want to play against San Jose State, and I wholeheartedly respect the decision of the players,” Lombardo posted to X at the time.
“No student athlete should ever be pressured to play a game where they don’t feel safe — period,” he added.
It could become a major campaign issue, as Lombardo and Attorney General Aaron Ford, who’s seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, have previously expressed sharply different views on transgender issues.
In 2022, Ford signed onto an amicus brief against an Arkansas law against “gender-affirming treatment” for minors.
“We must protect our children from discriminatory laws that bar access to necessary, gender-affirming health care,” Ford said in a January 2022 statement. Over and over again, evidence has shown that denying transgender youth access to gender-affirming care has a detrimental effect to their mental health and quality of life.”
He also had the state of Nevada on an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals backing two minors, 11 and 15, who identified as transgender in a case on whether they could participate on a girls’ sports team in Arizona.
“Plaintiffs simply want to participate on their school’s girl’s sports teams with their friends,” the brief stated.
“They have not experienced any of the physiological changes associated with male puberty and have no ascertainable competitive advantage over their cisgender peers,” it continued, saying that the plaintiffs identified as “girls in all aspects of their lives since an early age.”
In another case, he disagreed with the Trump administration’s policy about only listing two sexes on passports, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
RELATED: How Trump Learned To Embrace The Transgender Culture Wars
The Daily Wire reached out to the Ford campaign for comment. The race in the swing state is expected to be one of the most competitive gubernatorial races in the country next year.
Nor is Nevada the only state where transgender issues will be at the ballot box. Maine voters could soon consider a similar ban, along with restrictions on locker rooms, according to WGME News. Maine is expected to be highly competitive in the Senate race with incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who could face off against Democratic Gov. Janet Mills are Graham Platner in the general election. Mills made national headlines earlier for her opposition to the Trump administration’s policies on the issue.
“I’ll comply with state and federal law,” Mills said in a famous exchange with the president in February, with both saying they would take the issue to court, The Daily Wire reported.
“We are the federal law,” Trump said. “You better do it. Because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t. And by the way, your population, even though it is somewhat liberal — although I did very well there — your population doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports. You better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding.”
On the federal level, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order earlier this year to reign in funding for schools that allowed transgender-identifying athletes to participate in women’s sports.
“Therefore, it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth,” the order stated.
