Trans journalist Erin Reed has published a list of Democratic midterm candidates with anti-trans records, and the question she is forcing is one the party would rather not answer: if trans voters keep rewarding Democrats who harm them, what signal does that send? The calculation is real, the stakes are high, and there is no clean answer.
Democrats like Marcy Kaptur already have pursued legislation that legitimately harms us. Others like Talarico have signalled they will.
So what do you think the best course of action is?
The primaries have already happened. Nothing is going to change the candidates on the ballots unless someone drops out. As we’ve seen, this isn’t an issue that generates a big enough response for that.
We’ve seen the answer with Israel/Gaza. Sometimes you have to be willing to punish your own party in the general. The Democratic party has moved substantially on the Palestine issue over the last two years. That’s only happened because of Kamala’s loss. It never would have happened if she had won.
Btw, Talarico’s shift in messaging is likely to counter ads from Maga Inc with clips of him saying that there’s 6 biological sexes, Jesus was a radical feminist, god is non binary, and he’s a christian who hates christianity.
It’s best to not pay too much attention to campaign messaging. They’ll say what they have to say to win, so looking at their past stances and voting history is a better metric. He’s trying to win a seat in Texas, afterall.