How "wildly successful" anti-trans ads fired up Texas voters for Republicans

[LetMyPeopleVote]

These attack ads were a mainstay of Carnival Cruz' campaign and the few trump/gop ads that I saw on tv. These ads were offensive to me but were effective.

Link to tweet

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/08/transgender-ads-motivate-texas-republicans/

In the final weeks of a heated reelection campaign, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz released a television ad with a simple message — “Boys and girls: They’re different.”

In the ad, Cruz accused his Democratic challenger, Colin Allred, of wanting boys to play on girls’ sports teams. Allred released his own ad vehemently denying the claim. Neither mentioned that the Texas Legislature had already banned student athletes from playing on teams that didn’t match the sex they were assigned at birth......

The day after a red wave swept Texas and the nation, these strategists, as well as political scientists and advocates on both sides of the aisle, say focusing on these social issues seems to have mobilized the Republican base.

“This election was when the dam broke,” said Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, a right-wing political advocacy group. “Republicans have now figured out how to win parts of the culture war where Democrats are out of step with the American people.”

Schilling’s group spent $18 million on anti-trans ads nationally, of more than $200 million conservative groups spent messaging on this issue. He said Texans were particularly primed to act on this messaging — “warmed up,” as he put it — because the state Legislature has led the way on restricting trans student athletes and access to gender-affirming care......

In addition to the youth sports angle, Republicans have also hammered Democrats for using taxpayer dollars to pay for inmates to medically transition. The federal government is required to provide medical care to prisoners, and in some cases, after long legal battles, inmates in state and federal custody have been able to have gender-affirming surgeries.

National Republicans targeted Vice President Kamala Harris on this front, running an ad saying “Kamala’s for they/them. President Trump is for you.” But they also ran similar ads against U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in South Texas. While Gonzalez ended up narrowly defeating his Republican challenger, former U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores, the region as a whole swung sharply for President-elect Donald Trump this cycle.

These ads also played a role in why Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa resigned

After the routing from Republicans, Gilberto Hinojosa, the chair of Texas’ Democratic Party, told KUT that “there are going to be long term political consequences” to making trans issues more central. Other party leaders vehemently disagreed, with one saying Hinojosa was “dead wrong.” If the party was going “to tack further right and throw trans kids under the bus in the process,” party messaging chair Kolby Duhon said on X they would resign at the next meeting. On Friday, Hinojosa stepped down after 12 years leading the state party.

Hinojosa later apologized, saying he was “committed to fighting against the very rhetoric that has caused trans people across this country to grapple with the fear of simply existing because of the hate spewed by Donald Trump and TX Republicans.”

[Walleye]

1. Fundamental problem: we are fighting for good government, they are fighting the "culture war"

We won the culture war a long time ago, but typical Republicans, they can’t admit it

[getagrip_already]

2. Dems just wouldnt listen on this issue... a third rail

Many here were juried and penaltied for just pointing out that letting biological males compete on girls teams was causing a backlash even among people who support trans rights.

Nobody wanted to hear it was an issue that people were listening to.

[Envirogal]

4. The trans issue broke a lot of people's brains

My nephew in particular totally went Trump after the issue.

Actually, a CNN reporter did a story that found the damaging clip of Kamala talking about the trans prison issue, and my heart sank because I knew this would be cannon fodder for Trump and sycophants.

The sad is the Dems barely talked about trans issues, but it doesn’t matter the right wing was going to tie that albatross around our necks because we didn’t disavow them.

[Envirogal]

5. The trans issue broken people's brains

My nephew in particular totally went Trump after the issue.

Actually, a CNN reporter did a story that found the damaging clip of Kamala talking about the trans prison issue, and my heart sank because I knew this would be cannon fodder for Trump and sycophants.

The sad is the Dems barely talked about trans issues, but it doesn’t matter the right wing was going to tie that albatross around our necks because we didn’t disavow them.

[ColinC]

3. I think media has proven an increasingly successful turnout tool.

Dems take note.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. Trump's campaign spent $123 million on TV ads about transgender medical care in prisons

Link to tweet

Trump’s campaign spent $123 million on TV ads about transgender medical care in prisons—almost as much as the entire 2004 Kerry presidential campaign budget, inflation-adjusted. An illustration of the big-money corruption of our politics by SCOTUS’ 2010 Citizens United decision.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. After Trump wins on a campaign rife with anti-trans ads, LGBTQ people flood crisis hotlines

Transgender Americans have said the president-elect’s relentless attacks on their community are taking a toll.

Link to tweet

After Trump wins on a campaign rife with anti-trans ads, LGBTQ people flood crisis hotlines

Transgender Americans have said the president-elect’s relentless attacks on their community are taking a toll.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/lgbtq-crisis-hotlines-trump-anti-trans-election-rcna179464

LGBTQ advocacy organizations have reported a flood of calls and chats to their crisis communication hotlines after Donald Trump won the election this week, following a campaign that was rife with anti-trans attacks.

The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that provides mental health crisis services to LGBTQ people, reported a nearly 700% increase in reach-outs to its crisis services on Nov. 6, the day after the election. The organization said it saw “significantly high outreach from LGBTQ+ young people needing support in direct response to election results.” One-third of those who contacted its crisis services after the election identified themselves as Black, Indigenous or people of color, the organization said.

The day after the election, The Washington Post reported that the Rainbow Youth Project, a nonprofit advocacy group for LGBTQ youth, had received more calls in the first six days of November than it receives in an average month.

Trump’s vow to strip trans people of their rights was a big part of his election pitch. He flooded airwaves with ads targeting trans rights and vilifying trans women in sports. Republicans have also spent much of the past few years enacting legislation to curtail trans rights and demonizing trans people.

NBC News exit polls show that a huge majority of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender voters surveyed supported Harris in this election, while fewer LGBT voters cast their vote for the Republican candidate in this race than in any of the three previous presidential elections. Yet after a stinging defeat, some Democrats have suggested that the party should not be “pandering to the far left” — a proposal that my colleague Hayes Brown called “an instinct based on fear that should be rejected loudly and firmly from all corners of the party.”

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. trump's anti-trans ads were very effective

Link to tweet

83% of voters who broke for Trump in the final days think Harris and the Democrats support using taxpayer dollars to pay for transgender surgeries for undocumented immigrants in prison.

77% believe Democrats support allow minors to transition genders without informing parents.