rss

rss

Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

The gravest long-term threat to transgender Americans is not just the Republican Party. It is also the campaign to strip support for transgender people out of all parties. Republicans fall in and out of power, and when they lose it, rights lost under their control can be reclaimed. But if the Democratic Party itself ever flips to being anti-trans, there is no one left to do the reclaiming. There will never be enough lawmakers who both hold power and support trans rights to repeal the damage, and every loss becomes permanent. It is a one-way ratchet, and it is terrifying.

It is not hypothetical, either. In the United Kingdom, the Labour Party, the ostensibly left-of-center party, completed exactly this flip, and since taking power it has enacted more horrors on the trans community than even the Conservatives before it. British trans people now have no major party to turn to. That is the endgame of the strategy currently being tested here in the United States.

Erin In The Morning is committed to giving the LGBTQ+ community the information it needs to stop that from happening here. What follows is a guide to anti-trans Democrats in the 2026 election cycle, organized by state. It covers federal and statewide races only: U.S. Senate, governor, other statewide offices, and the U.S. House. Many on this list have cast harmful votes or said things about transgender people that should put voters on alert.

What you do with this information is up to you. Many, myself included, have argued against voting for the worst offenders on this list even where it means a Republican takes the seat. A Republican victory costs the community one seat for one term. A worst-offender victory teaches the party’s consultant class, the Searchlights and Third Ways, that throwing transgender people under the bus is a winning strategy, and that lesson would be applied everywhere until the Democratic Party goes the way of Labour. One seat can be won back. A party cannot.

Here is the list:

Alabama

Shomari Figures, U.S. House, 2nd District (incumbent). Voted yes on Nancy Mace’s NDAA amendments banning gender-affirming care for transgender service members, one of only five Democrats to do so.

Terri Sewell, U.S. House, 7th District (incumbent). Voted yes on Nancy Mace’s NDAA amendments banning gender-affirming care for transgender service members, one of only five Democrats to do so.

Alaska

Mary Peltola, U.S. Senate candidate; former U.S. representative for Alaska’s at-large district. One of only six Democrats to vote for the 2024 NDAA, which contained severe anti-trans and anti-DEI amendments.

California

Xavier Becerra, candidate for governor. In a May interview, argued that nothing in the Constitution entitles transgender people to play sports, and that if “rules don’t let you play a sport because of who you are,” that is acceptable. This is the position the Supreme Court ultimately took.

Adam Gray, U.S. House, 13th District (incumbent). One of only three Democrats to vote for a bathroom ban on military bases for transgender people, along with a sports ban, a gender-affirming care ban, and several other anti-trans amendments to the NDAA.

Indiana

Beau Bayh, candidate for secretary of state. Called transgender women “men,” and said, “I think we should not have men playing women’s sports, and our state has already passed a law outlawing this.”

Iowa

Josh Turek, U.S. Senate nominee. Actively opposes transgender participation in sports, on the record.

Rob Sand, Democratic nominee for governor. Actively opposes transgender participation in sports, answering “no” when a conservative radio host asked whether “biological males” should play women’s sports.

Sarah Trone Garriott, U.S. House candidate, 3rd District. Running an anti-transgender ad stating that she “opposes letting men in women’s locker rooms” and that “politicians have become too extreme on these issues.”

Louisiana

Cleo Fields, U.S. House, 6th District (incumbent). Voted for the “Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act,” which would strip funding from schools that support transgender people, along with several other anti-trans bills.

Mississippi

Jeffrey Hulum III, Democratic nominee for the U.S. House, 4th District; currently a state representative for District 119. In the Legislature, he voted for Mississippi’s anti-trans incarceration bill.

Nevada

Aaron Ford, candidate for governor. Stated, “I personally do not support trans athletes competing in sports opposite their gender assigned at birth.”

Susie Lee, U.S. House, 3rd District (incumbent). Explicitly voted for Nancy Mace’s military trans sports ban amendment in the FY2026 NDAA.

New York

Tom Suozzi, U.S. House, 3rd District (incumbent). Blamed transgender people for Harris’s loss and voted for a trans sports ban in the military.

Laura Gillen, U.S. House, 4th District (incumbent). Voted for the “Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act,” which would strip funding from schools that support transgender people, along with several other anti-trans bills.

John Mannion, U.S. House, 22nd District (incumbent). Explicitly voted for Nancy Mace’s military trans sports ban amendment in the FY2026 NDAA.

North Carolina

Don Davis, U.S. House, 1st District (incumbent). Voted for Nancy Mace’s amendments barring TRICARE coverage of transgender care for service members and dependents, a sports ban, and the “Don’t Say Trans” bill. He also voted yes on Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill criminalizing gender-affirming care.

Ohio

Sherrod Brown, U.S. Senate candidate; former U.S. senator for Ohio. Released an ad in 2024 featuring Lia Thomas’s picture, stating that the practice had “already been banned in Ohio” and that Brown would not “let transgender biological men participate in women’s sports.”

Amy Acton, Democratic nominee for governor Affirmed her support for Ohio’s trans sports ban and called transgender girls “boys,” then skipped the listening session her own campaign scheduled with local transgender advocates.

Marcy Kaptur, U.S. House, 9th District (incumbent). Voted for the “Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act,” which would strip funding from schools that support transgender people, along with several other anti-trans bills.

Texas

Henry Cuellar, U.S. House, 28th District (incumbent). A stalwart opponent of transgender rights in Congress, voting for nearly every anti-trans bill or provision.

Colin Allred, U.S. House candidate, 33rd District. Released a campaign ad in 2024 saying he “didn’t want boys playing in girls sports.”

Vicente Gonzalez, U.S. House, 34th District (incumbent). A stalwart opponent of transgender rights in Congress, voting for nearly every anti-trans bill or provision.

Virginia

Eugene Vindman, U.S. House, 7th District (incumbent). Voted for the “Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act,” which would strip funding from schools that support transgender people, along with several other anti-trans bills.

Washington

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, U.S. House, 3rd District (incumbent). Criticized Democrats for framing trans sports bans as “about love vs. hate,” saying “we miss some of the nuance,” and has taken multiple anti-trans votes, including a vote to defund public schools that support transgender people.

Kim Schrier, U.S. House, 8th District (incumbent). Voted for the trans sports ban amendment to the NDAA in Congress.