Republicans’ attacks on transgender athletes could give Democrats an opening to challenge the party’s priorities, The New Republic editor Michael Tomasky argued Monday in a scathing new analysis.
With a month until Election Day, Tomasky criticized the GOP for emphasizing sports participation while Americans face rising prices, health care costs and the war in Iran.
“It’s pathetic,” he told readers.
“Donald Trump and the Republican Party have made daily life harder for regular Americans while simultaneously degrading the nation’s character and soul,” Tomasky continued. “And they’re going to finish this campaign by trying to terrify people about a thing that hardly exists.”
Tomasky pointed to NCAA President Charlie Baker’s December 2024 testimony that fewer than 10 of roughly 510,000 college athletes were openly transgender.
He went on to outline three responses for Democrats: Leave eligibility decisions to individual sports’ governing bodies, question why Republicans prioritize such a small population over economic issues and defend transgender Americans who are “being persecuted in red states and living in fear.”
“Facts don’t usually defeat demagoguery, but in this case, they would help a lot,” Tomasky added.
The New Republic editor acknowledged that supporting transgender athletes’ participation is politically difficult in some states. But he also warned Democrats against responding by turning against transgender people.
“Doing that would be a political, and moral, disaster,” Tomasky wrote Monday.
Democrats, he argued, can address voters’ concerns while challenging Republicans’ treatment of transgender people.
“And if the Democrats can fight off the relentless and vile Republican attacks on this issue, that leaves the Republicans with nothing,” he added. “Which is precisely what they offer the country.”
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