Trump Rally Dayton Ohio

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On Saturday, October 3, Donald Trump flew to Ohio to rally for Senator Jon Husted, the Republican seeking to hold his Senate seat, and for other Republicans on the state’s 2026 midterm ballot. The state has already been a central battleground over transgender rights, with Democrats such as Amy Acton and Marcy Kaptur throwing transgender people under the bus in their statements and ads. Meanwhile, the strategists behind anti-trans Republican ads have suggested that those attacks on Democrats are beginning to falter in a midterm environment that looks brutal for conservative candidates. Not to be deterred, however, Trump used a significant portion of his rally to rail against transgender people, claiming that Democrats would “mutilize” voters’ children and turn them transgender.

“Less than two years ago, the radical left, I’ll be nice every once in a while, call them Democrat, but they’re Democrats because their policy is so dumb… I saw the policy about transgender for everybody. The mutilization of your children. Can you imagine like 10, 15 years ago saying that ladies and gentlemen, we will not have men playing in women’s sports. Will you defend it? Can you imagine saying we will not allow the mutilization of your children so that they can become transgender?” Trump said, before continuing with a declaration that “we will not allow men to play in women’s sports.”

He continued for a few more minutes, comparing an Alabama offensive lineman, the husband of Senator Katie Britt, to his wife, saying she was “the size of his leg.” He also called transgender people playing sports “totally demeaning to women.” Later, he returned to the topic, bragging that he got “critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our schools,” likely a reference to the policies his administration has used to threaten public school districts with the loss of their lunch money for hungry children if they support transgender students, as well as his successful efforts to get several colleges to roll over on protections for transgender students.

You can see the full clip here:

Trump’s rally and focus on transgender people in Ohio comes during what appears to be an inflection point in the state, and in some ways the country. Ohio is one of two states, Iowa being the other, where a significant number of Democrats have rolled over on transgender rights or made campaigning against transgender people part of their ad strategy. Earlier this year, gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton called transgender girls “boys,” leading to an intraparty firestorm and the state party silencing its own Progressive and Pride caucuses. Meanwhile, Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur bragged in a campaign ad about having “voted with Republicans to keep transgender ideology out of our schools.”

However, there is some question as to whether Trump’s statements and Republican ads are even effective this campaign cycle. Last November, anti-trans ads were deployed in a style similar to the 2024 presidential election against Democratic candidates for governor Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill in Virginia and New Jersey. Those ads flopped tremendously: 57% of Winsome Earle-Sears’s ads targeted transgender people, and Spanberger still won by 15 points, while Democrats grew their Virginia House majority from 51 seats to 64 and won the New Jersey governorship. Now, one of the largest anti-trans ad organizations, the American Principles Project, has admitted that such ads “may not be sufficient” for Republicans to win in the 2026 midterms.

Still, this has not stopped a slew of anti-trans ads from dominating the airwaves during the midterms. Likewise, it has still not stopped President Trump from targeting transgender students, schools, and sports in his campaign stops for Republican candidates. As the election draws near, transgender people are left waiting to see what lessons will be drawn from this election with respect to a potential future where the many harmful policies and actions taken against the community can be reversed. The impact of this wave of anti-trans campaigning will play a big part in answering that question.

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