A contingent of Democrats running for office in House, Senate, and gubernatorial races this election cycle have, in some form, bucked the transgender movement’s central positions on female-only sports and youth gender medicine.
These contests will offer a crucial test of how the transgender movement has affected electoral prospects for the Democratic Party, as the 2026 campaign season has revealed an internal divide over transgender policy, particularly in the party’s centrist wing.
Some of the party’s nominees, including in the battleground states of Ohio, Iowa, and Alaska, have adopted a conservative stance outright opposing male takeovers of female sports and the medical transitioning of minors in hopes of appealing to more moderate constituents. Recent polling has shown that bans on pediatric transgender procedures and laws protecting single-sex sports are popular among voters.
Other contenders on the Democratic ticket, such as Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico, have softened their rhetoric in response to Republican attack ads highlighting controversial remarks they previously made in support of transgender causes.
Tuesday’s election results will provide a key measure of how the public responds to this recalibration on transgender issues within the Democratic base. More broadly, the results could reshape the Democratic Party’s approach to transgender matters moving forward, especially as the party hopes to retake the White House in 2028.
Here are the competitive races to watch where Democratic candidates have gone against the transgender lobby, whether in their public statements or measures they have supported as officeholders:
Ohio governor: Amy Acton (D) vs. Vivek Ramaswamy (R)
Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for Ohio governor, caught flak from the Human Rights Campaign for saying she supports the state’s 2023 law enacted to safeguard sex-segregated school sports.
“I do not support boys playing in girls sports,” Acton told the Toledo Blade in June. “This is already settled law in Ohio, and as governor I will enforce and uphold the law.”
HRC, one of the largest transgender lobbying groups in the country, said at an October press conference that it will not back Acton because of her stated opposition to biological boys competing against girls in organized sports.
Ohio’s 9th Congressional District: Marcy Kaptur (D) vs. Derek Merrin (R)
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), the longest-serving congresswoman, also lost the HRC’s support for holding the line on female-only sports and opposing school gender-transition plans carried out behind parents’ backs.
In an ad Katpur aired in September, she said, “I voted with Republicans to keep transgender ideology out of our schools because parents know what’s best for their kids,” referring to how she helped pass the Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act.
Separating herself even further, Kaptur’s campaign sent out mailers reading, “Unlike the far left, I believe boys shouldn’t play girls sports.”
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In response, HRC President Kelley Robinson told reporters, “I’m not wasting my time on Marcy Kaptur.”
The decision marked a stark reversal from the HRC’s long-standing support of Kaptur, whose reelection bids had earned the organization’s endorsements in 2018, 2020, and 2022.
She faces a tough battle on Tuesday night. Kaptur was left a vulnerable House Democrat after Ohio Republicans redrew her district’s boundaries to pull in more GOP voters. However, pollsters say she is positioned to keep her seat, with the 9th Congressional District still leaning Democrat amid a national environment that is expected to favor Democrats heavily.
Texas Senate: James Talarico (D) vs. Ken Paxton (R)
Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, another Democrat endorsed by the HRC, has recently reversed course on some of his most controversial positions, telling Fox News in September that he “missed the mark” with his past statements calling God “nonbinary” and saying there are more than two sexes.
“I oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it endangers safety or fairness,” Talarico said. He also affirmed, “There are not six sexes. There are two.”
Talarico additionally indicated he would “absolutely” support a nationwide ban on sex-change surgeries for minors.
His acknowledgment of the dangers of mixed-sex sports and childhood medical intervention had landed Talarico in hot water with the HRC.
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However, the HRC said Talarico later apologized at a campaign stop and insisted that his comments were clipped in a way that left out an important counterpoint.
“That was a caveat that he put in there, really encouraging folks to go back to local governance and rules related to sports, and he felt like that wasn’t really captured,” said Robinson, the HRC’s president.
She added that Talarico clarified his position on child gender medicalization as well, saying “he believed that the role of politicians isn’t in the doctor’s office.”
Alaska Senate: Mary Peltola (D) vs. Dan Sullivan (R)
Democratic Alaska Senate nominee Mary Peltola has directly addressed her positions on medically transitioning minors and allowing men into women’s restrooms.
“No, I don’t want kids getting surgery to change genders or men in girls’ bathrooms,” Peltola said in a September campaign ad.
Peltola’s messaging strategy was more direct than some other Democrats who have tried to dodge questioning on their particular stances pertaining to transgender issues.
However, in October, she characterized criticism regarding her Republican-aligned positions as “political theater” meant to distract from rising energy costs and food prices.
“My hope is that we don’t have to spend one second on a conversation about trans anything,” Peltola told a left-wing counterprotester at a campaign event. “My hope is that we have a Senate that’s serious about fixing American problems and not creating political diversions, not creating and stoking wedge issues that just divide us.”
Peltola is already contending with a political firestorm over the New York Times reporting that her campaign conspired to run a spoiler candidate with the same name as her Republican opponent, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), in an effort to confuse voters.
Indeed, an independent challenger, Dan J. Sullivan, emerged, setting off a legal certification fight between the Justice Department and Peltola’s campaign.
Ohio Senate: Sherrod Brown (D) vs. Jon Husted (R)
Former Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is hoping to reclaim his Senate seat, has similarly redirected scrutiny about his transgender-related positions to issues like affordability.
Brown responded to an attack ad accusing him of supporting child sex-change surgeries with an ad of his own, in which Brown’s supporters criticize the Republican focus on gender medicine compared to the cost of living. “With everything going on, that’s what they’re talking about?” says one of the ad’s subjects.
The ad also notes that state law already prohibits physicians from performing such procedures on children. “In Ohio, it’s against the law to perform transgender surgeries on kids,” another ad subject says. “That’s right, it’s illegal.”
Meanwhile, the HRC said it is standing by Brown and directing its funds and political organizing capital toward staunch supporters of the transgender movement.
“We’re spending our energy investing in the candidates that are all the way with us,” Robinson said. “So in Ohio, we’re really spending a lot of energy and effort with Sherrod Brown’s campaign.”
Iowa Senate: Josh Turek (D) vs. Ashley Hinson (R)
Democratic Iowa Senate nominee Josh Turek, a former Paralympian, said he “knows it’s important to have rules” when it comes to sex-separated sports.
“As someone that spent a lot of my life in high-level sports, I don’t believe that biological males should compete against females in sports,” Turek told the New York Times.
In an October ad, he reiterated that he opposes “males competing in female sports, something that is already illegal in Iowa,” and is “against taxpayers paying for sex changes, too.”
Since then, prominent transgender activists have rallied the movement to not vote for Turek, claiming he is transphobic.
Erin Reed, the author of a popular Substack blog dedicated to transgender legislation, wrote in an Oct. 25 post that “Turek is making his closing message about anti-transgender hate.”
Reed said Turkek’s ad, implicitly supporting a federal funding ban on taxpayer-subsidized transgender procedures, was “targeting transgender people.” Any such proposal, Reed claimed, “would be profoundly harmful for transgender people.”
Virginia’s 7th Congressional District: Eugene Vindman (D) vs. Doug Ollivant (R)
Incumbent Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA) voted in favor of the PROTECT Kids Act in May, a parental rights law that would require federally funded elementary and middle schools to seek parental approval first before allowing a child to access school facilities of the opposite sex and changing a student’s gender markers, pronouns, or preferred name on any school form.
When confronted at a King George County Democratic Committee in August on why he joined Republicans in supporting the GOP-introduced legislation, Vindman said his vote came from a place of concern as a parent.
“I’m a parent. I’m a dad,” Vindman said. “I care deeply about my kids, and that’s what I voted on.”
The tense confrontation ended with Vindman walking out of the meeting after a Democratic committee member told him to “shut the f*** up.”
Iowa governor: Rob Sand (D) vs. Zach Lahn (R)
Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand, the Democratic nominee running to be Iowa’s next governor, told Politico that he splits with fellow Democrats on transgender sports accommodations.
“I just think girls’ sports are for girls and boys’ sports are for boys,” Sand said during a sitdown interview in August.
Sand secured the Democratic nomination after no other Democrats qualified. In August, Cook Political Report moved the race’s rating from “Toss Up” to “Lean Democrat,” citing Sand’s consistent lead in public and private poll results.