Two House Democrats said they oppose transgender athletes competing in women’s sports in the immediate aftermath of former President Trump’s decisive victory over Vice President Harris, shifting right of their previous policy positions and deepening fractures within a bruised Democratic Party.
Trump and Republicans bet big on anti-transgender messaging in the final stretch of the presidential election, pouring millions into ads aired during football games critical of trans athletes and gender-affirming care.
Among the campaign’s most effective 30-second spots was an ad featuring the on-air comments of Breakfast Club host Charlamagne Tha God, which shifted the race 2.7 percentage points in Trump’s favor, the New York Times reported Thursday, citing an analysis by Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Harris.
Harris struggled to combat Trump’s attacks, skirting direct questions about transgender rights in interviews to the chagrin of some Democrats.
“The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) told the New York Times on Wednesday. “I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports.”
“Democrats aren’t saying that, and they should be,” said Suozzi, who narrowly won reelection Tuesday.
Suozzi, first elected in 2017, briefly left Congress in 2022 to run for governor of New York, a bid he ultimately lost to incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. He returned to the House the following year after winning a special election for his former seat, left open by Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) expulsion.
During his first stint in Congress, Suozzi backed legislation supportive of transgender rights, including the Equality Act, which would make gender identity and sexual orientation federally protected classes, and a resolution put forward by GLSEN that brought attention to bullying and harassment that gay and trans students face in schools.
Suozzi had already exited Congress when a proposal to ban transgender women and girls from female school sports teams made its way to the House floor, where it ultimately passed along party lines.
Suozzi’s office did not respond to emailed questions about whether Suozzi would have supported that bill or whether he would support similar legislation in the next Congress.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) similarly blamed Harris and Democrats’ unwillingness to move on trans athletes for the party’s election night losses.
“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” Moulton told the New York Times Thursday. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
Moulton, like Suozzi, has voted with most other Democrats to safeguard transgender rights since his election to Congress in 2015. Twice, once in 2021 and again in 2023, he cosponsored House Democrats’ Transgender Bill of Rights, which, among other protections, would guarantee trans athletes the right to participate on sports teams that match their gender identity.
Last spring, Moulton voted against passing Rep. Greg Steube’s (R-Fla.) Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which had sought to change Title IX to recognize sex as “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
A spokesperson for Moulton’s office said Moulton’s statement to the Times was made during a wide-ranging conversation meant to illustrate how Democrats leaned too far into identity politics this cycle. The spokesperson did not directly answer questions about Moulton’s vote on Steube’s bill, his endorsement of the Transgender Bill of Rights or whether his positions on trans issues have changed.
Moulton, who also won reelection Tuesday, and Suozzi’s 2024 campaigns were endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group that has vehemently opposed efforts to restrict or ban transgender athletes from school sports.
Brandon Wolf, the organization’s press secretary, did not directly respond to questions about the two men’s statements.
“Our 2024 exit polls mirror what has been true election after election — anti-trans attacks did not drive electoral results,” Wolf said in an email. “When asked their most important issues in this election, just 4 percent — last on the list — identified opposing care for trans people and trans kids playing in sports as issues motivating them to vote.”
“We will spend years analyzing the results of this election and building a winning coalition for the cycles to come, but we know this: blaming those who have long been in the MAGA crosshairs won’t help us build the path forward,” he said.
Moulton is a member of the Congressional Equality Caucus, which promotes LGBTQ equality in the House and has condemned Republican-led legislation targeting transgender rights, including the ability of student-athletes to compete on sports teams that best align with their gender identity.
A spokesperson for the Equality Caucus did not return an email or text message seeking comment.
