As Election Day Nears, Anti-Transgender Attacks Are Still a Political Loser
New polls underscore Americans’ everyday concerns: affordability and rampant corruption
Transgender equality not a top issue driving voters, data shows voters trust Democrats more on “transgender issues” despite yearslong anti-trans fear mongering campaigns
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Data continues to make the undercurrents of the midterms elections clear: voters are worried about corruption, inflation, gas prices and healthcare. Yet right wing politicians continue to spend time and campaign resources attacking transgender people, even as trends point toward those attacks ringing hollow with voters.
A new Fox News Poll reveals that voters are overwhelmingly focused on pocketbook issues and institutional integrity, not the divisive culture wars that have come to define the right wing’s agenda. According to the survey, 88% of voters are extremely or very concerned about government corruption, followed closely by inflation and high prices at 85%, gas prices at 83%, and healthcare at 80%. Meanwhile, despite the obsession with transgender people from right wing politicians and talking heads, transgender equality is nowhere to be found in voters’ top concerns. Three other national polls showed the same trends, with “transgender issues” either not registering or coming in dead last among voters’ priorities. In fact, data from the ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found voters more likely to trust Democrats on “transgender issues” by 9 points years into the right wing’s manufactured anti-trans hysteria campaign.
“The pendulum is swinging in Florida and around the country,” said Equality Florida Action PAC Executive Director Joe Saunders. “Floridians are worried about the cost of housing, groceries, health care and insurance. They are sick of the politics of chaos and division and want a government that works for them. Instead, far right politicians have spent years peddling transphobia and promising that the solution to our problems is hating our neighbors just a little more. Voters aren’t buying it. They can smell this cynical strategy a mile away and know that every time they see another ad attacking transgender people, it’s just a desperate Trump-brand politician trying to distract from their losing record and bankrupt agenda. We are demanding leaders with real solutions to our real problems, not hate peddlers who have nothing to offer but tired attacks on our friends and neighbors. Change is coming.”
The national data mirrors electoral shifts in Florida. During the August 2026 Florida primaries, 81% of Equality Florida Action PAC-endorsed candidates advanced or won their races, while candidates heavily aligned with anti-LGBTQ platforms suffered severe losses. Moms for Liberty’s hostile takeover of Florida’s school system was halted and the organization is now in retreat after dumping money into anti-trans fear mongering. And voters are poised to break the conservative supermajorities and expand the LGBTQ caucus to its largest size ever just a few years after the DeSantis Administration made Florida’s politics synonymous with the anti-LGBTQ agenda.
Around the Country, Anti-Trans Attacks Keep Failing and GOP Leaders Are Begging the Party to Focus on Voters’ Concerns
Anti-trans attacks took center stage in the 2024 election cycle as the Trump Campaign poured hundreds of millions of dollars into ads attacking Vice President Kamala Harris for her support of fair treatment in jails and prisons. But in the wake of that election, it was clear that anti-trans attack ads did not break through because the American public is inherently transphobic – they tapped into a broader frustration about what politicians were focused on while the economy struggled and people’s everyday lives got harder.
Nevertheless, the right wing took the wrong lesson away and salivated over the chance to weaponize anti-trans attacks over and over in future cycles. Those attacks promptly failed. In 2025, the right wing machine dumped millions into anti-trans attack ads in Virginia, New Jersey, Nebraska, and others. Pro-equality candidates stood their ground, called out the bizarre right wing obsession with the trans community, and won. In Virginia, for example, former Lt-Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and her allies spent more than 50% of their ad budget on anti-LGBTQ attacks. She went on to lose by double digits.
The addiction to anti-trans attacks at the expense of addressing voters’ real concerns has GOP operatives and leaders begging their party to refocus. In the 2025 cycle, GOP operatives warned that Earle-Sears had no vision to resonate with voters. Former Lt-Gov. Bill Bolling blasted her campaign strategy as well, saying of her obsession with transgender people, “If this is all the Sears campaign has to talk about, I think they are in serious trouble.” Now, GOP leaders are sounding the alarm again. In a recent interview with Texas Monthly, Former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan said anti-trans attacks are “just not resonating.”
Florida’s Anti-Equality Candidates Double Down Anyway
Despite all the data telling candidates to focus on voters’ top concerns if they want to win, far right campaigns in Florida are doubling down. Millions have already been spent targeting pro-equality candidates on every level of the ballot with anti-trans ads, including a multi-million dollar buy in August from GOP gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds. But while the right wing hyperventilates about drag queens and middle school soccer fields, Floridians continue to demand answers to the soaring cost of living, crushing housing costs, skyrocketing gas prices, out of control property insurance rates, cratering health care access, and more.
“Tormenting transgender people isn’t making anyone’s life better. And that’s why these attacks are a loser. We deserve a Florida with a vision for a brighter future, not one constantly stuck in reverse. And November 3, we will send that message loud and clear,” said Saunders.
Paid political advertisement paid for by Equality Florida Action PAC, 15257 Amberly Dr., Ste. 382, Tampa, FL 33647, independently of any candidate or committee. This advertisement was not approved by any candidate.
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