Bolstered by the 2022 midterms, Democrats made abortion a key issue for Harris-Walz ticket. In fact, in a pre-election survey of Democrat voters and their top issues, four of five issues they named were related to abortion, AFN previously reported.
Yet it now appears the Trump campaign knew the issue of transgenderism, in particular males competing against females, was a winning issue for the Trump-Vance ticket because the topic was connecting with suburban white women and minorities.
A hard-hitting ad campaign, now known as the “they/them” ads, blanketed TV screens for weeks with tens of millions of dollars behind it. It quoted Harris supporting trans surgery for male prisoners, and it proved effective with black men and Latino men, and also with white suburban women, according to a New York Times story.
"Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you," the ad’s narrator states.
The “they-them” ad not only surprised the Trump campaign, the Times said, but it surprised the Harris campaign, too.
Macy Petty, a former college volleyball player, has emerged as an outspoken advocate for women's sports at Concerned Women for America. She tells AFN that Trump showed his support for women when he signed a "Presidential Promise to American Women." That pledge states in part "the status and dignity of women and girls will not be compromised in law or policy."
Harris, by comparison, supposedly campaigned for "women's rights" but in reality insulted and betrayed women, Petty says.
"That's why President Trump's ad hit directly to the heart of the voters," she tells AFN.
“Probably the number one cultural issue for Christians was not abortion this time. It was transgenderism,” Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, tells AFN.
Whatever support Harris was enjoying from evangelical voters, which was already small, Jeffress observes, she lost it when the ads reminded voters she supports using their tax dollars on gender mutilation surgery for prison inmates.
“I think when people saw operations being performed on children to change their sex, I think they think that's ludicrous,” Jeffress says. “I think the idea of paying for inmates' surgery is ridiculous.”
Campaign ad dismissed by GLAAD
Democrats and their LGBTQ allies did not see it that way, however, as evidenced by a USA Today story published two weeks before Election Day. That story quoted GLAAD, a homosexual rights group, that said its own poll suggested the “they/them” ads weren’t effective.
“These ads weaponize trans-identity to sow fear and division, making our country less safe for everyone,” a GLAAD spokesman told USA Today.
As is typical with such groups, GLAAD appeared to ignore how the trans issue has effected everything from women’s sports and children’s hospitals to parental rights and elementary school books.
But the election proved the public did not ignore it, beginning on election night. As vote returns were still coming in, before Trump was projected to win, Fox News political analyst Harold Ford Jr. was among the first to predict Democrats had fumbled.
“The issue around transgender rights was a bigger issue than what Democrats really understand what it meant,” Ford, the father of a daughter, said. “I don’t think we ever got our heads fully around that issue.”
After the election, two House Democrats braved cries of “transphobia” to publicly state they support women-only sports.
“The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, a New York lawmaker, told The New York Times for its trans-related story.
“I don’t want to discriminate against anybody,” Suozzi said, “but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports.”
Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, shared a similar comment to the Times.
“I have two little girls,” he said. “I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
Reacting to the election outcome, political analyst Dr. Charles Dunn tells AFN some wise Democrats better learn why Harris got demolished on Election Day.
"They're going to be six feet under if they don't moderate," he predicts.
Asked about pastors bringing up the hot-button issue, Jeffress says he believes pastors and churches were not as vocal as they should have been prior to Election Day. But voters were paying attention anyway and decided the Left had gone too far.
“Jesus' message was, 'you were naked and I clothed you. You were hungry and I fed you.' It wasn't, 'and you were in prison and I castrated you,’” he says.
