Donald Trump has made a remarkable political career out of proving the Washington, D.C., consultant class wrong. In 2016, he won the presidency with a campaign that was almost the exact opposite of his infamous campaign. RNC “autopsy” report It was prescribed 4 years ago. In 2020, he fell just 42,000 votes short of re-election despite facing unprecedented obstacles due to the global pandemic and its aftermath.
And now Trump has shown once again that his instincts are far better than those who claim to be “professionals.” In an election where most experts were urging Republicans to focus as much as possible on standard issues like the economy and immigration, Trump instead focused on one of Democrats' biggest weaknesses: transgender issues. attacked the far left's stance on This decision led to his return to the White House.
If you don't trust the polls, you should at least trust the results.
In the final weeks, exposing Kamala Harris' transgender extremism became the Trump campaign's final message. According to ad impactRepublicans spent a total of at least $215 million on ads highlighting the radical consequences of the Harris-Waltz policies: male athletes in women's sports, sex-reassignment surgeries and puberty inhibition in minors, ideological turmoil in public schools. Brainwashing, and the most visible one is the taxpayer. -Funded sex reassignment surgeries for prisoners and illegal immigrants. 1 reportTrump has suggested he focused his ads on these issues rather than the economy, housing and immigration combined.
This strategy completely overturned conventional wisdom. In preparation for the election, Politicians of both parties argued Transgender issues are targeted only at the Republican base and do not resonate with a broader electorate. But outside of the D.C. bubble, the issue certainly resonated. This should come as no surprise to anyone interested in the average American voter.
For years, polls have shown the Democratic Party's stance on transgender people to be deeply unpopular. for example, 2023 NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll Voters were found to be 37 points opposed to allowing minors to receive “gender-related medical care” even with the consent of their parents or guardians. a Yahoo News Survey This month's poll showed that Americans believe the left's gender ideology policies have gone too far by a 24-point margin. and, YouGov poll Voters in battleground states agreed with Republicans' positions on gender and bathrooms by a margin of more than 16 points.
These skewed numbers aren't just driven by Republican respondents. Large numbers of independents, young people, suburban women, black voters, and Latinos all side with conservatives on these issues.
But if you can't trust the polls, you should at least trust the results. The first general election to focus heavily and openly on transgender issues was in 2021. transgender debate He helped lead Gov. Glenn Youngkin into shocking chaos in Virginia in his final weeks. Meanwhile, dozens of states across the country have begun passing laws banning male participation in women's sports and restricting gender transition procedures for minors. When South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) decided to veto a transgender sports bill earlier this year; massive backlash Next. To Noem's credit, she changed course and signed a similar bill At the next Congress.
In 2022, the anti-transgender movement continued to gain momentum. More states took action, including Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott took office. declared Children who have undergone a gender transition are subject to child abuse. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis won a landslide reelection after a first term largely defined by his support for cultural conservatism. This set him apart from many other Republican candidates across the country, most of whom rarely used gender issues in their ads, which worked against him. Failing to exploit one of Democrats' biggest weaknesses in the midterm elections, in which Republicans largely underperformed, turned out to be a grave mistake.
Of course, that wasn't the case this year. Beyond Trump's own campaign, numerous candidates have waged attacks on gender issues, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in Senate and House races across the country. This was a smart strategy that not only energized the Republican base but also appealed to persuadable voters. Data collected by my organization's political arm, American Principles Project PAC, shows that the unique ads on transgender issues that the campaign has run since 2019 have consistently driven tens of thousands of swing voters to the Democratic Party. from then on to Republican candidates.
The potential impact of these ads can also be tracked through public opinion polls this year. For example, in the U.S. Senate race in Ohio, the Senate Leadership Fund We have started posting advertisements He highlighted Democrat Sherrod Brown's record on transgender issues in early September. Around the same time, Republican Bernie Moreno began to move up in the polls, and was eventually even with Brown, who had a 6-point lead when the ad began, the paper said. average 538. Similar moves can be seen in many other races where such ads have aired.
There is little doubt, then, that the Republicans' culture war offensive was a decisive factor in their victory. And now that Democrats are on the back foot, Republicans should push for that advantage. Force Democrats to vote in Congress on keeping men out of women's sports and protecting children from dangerous transgender medical procedures. Let's take executive action on these issues and dare Democratic leaders in blue states to sue. As long as the left continues to cling to these unpopular positions, it will continue to be a burden to them.
Donald Trump has hit back at Washington, D.C., elites twice now, and he's been rewarded for it. Perhaps it's time for those elites to finally start taking notes.
