Republicans’ political breakthrough on attacks on transgender rights has profound implications for the coming off-year elections and a wave of legislative fights both parties expect will accelerate in 2025.
After a string of elections in which the attacks appeared politically ineffective, they suddenly came through for Republicans in 2024, resonating with at least some voters and putting Democrats on the defensive to such a degree that they hardly even fought back.
“I’m often not shy about expressing opinions, but for me, it’s actually politically the hardest issue. I have no good answers. I am not clear, you know — it just simply could be the case that it’s a losing issue for Democrats,” Rep. Ritchie Torres, a co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, told NOTUS. “I have not figured out what message would be effective at neutralizing that issue politically.”