Senate ad slams transgender athletes ‘pretending to be women’

A new ad in the Missouri Republican Senate primary criticizes the collegiate swimmer at the center of a debate over policies for transgender athletes, marking the first time the lightning-rod issue has appeared in a Senate campaign spot.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), one of several contenders vying to replace retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt, is out with a new ad slamming Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s team. Thomas, who previously swam three seasons on the university’s men’s team, has come in first in multiple women’s events in recent months and is poised to compete in the upcoming Ivy League and NCAA championships.

“Meet William Thomas, ranked No. 462 in men’s swimming,” Hartzler says in the ad. “Meet Lia Thomas, ranked No. 1 in women’s swimming. Only one problem — it’s the same person.”

Hartzler, formerly a women’s track runner and coach, is touching on an issue that has proven popular not just with Republicans, but also Democrats. A Gallup poll last year found that 62 percent of Americans supported requiring athletes to play on a team that corresponds with their sex at birth — similar to battleground polling conducted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee in September, which put that figure at 64 percent across the board. Among Republicans, 83 percent back a ban on transgender athletes, according to the polling.

“Some people are afraid to talk about it. Not me,” Hartzler said in the 30-second spot, explaining that she “won’t look away while woke liberals destroy women’s sports.”

“Women’s sports are for women, not men pretending to be women,” she said.

Thomas has been at the center of controversy in recent months as the NCAA has grappled over regulations for transgender students, generating outcry from college athletes on both sides of the issue.

Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate race — another fiercely competitive election for a retiring GOP seat — have so far avoided making the home-state culture war issue a topic of their $32 million in campaign advertisements.

Hartzler, who consistently wears hot pink in her campaign spots, is the only woman in Missouri’s crowded Republican primary. The six-term House member has emphasized her history as a steady, noncontroversial conservative woman in Missouri politics — a foil to male politicians in the state who have proved problematic for the Republican Party in recent years.

One of her primary election opponents, former Gov. Eric Greitens, resigned from his position mid-term in 2018 after facing allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman. The party lost a winnable Senate seat in 2012, the year its nominee, former Rep. Todd Akin, drew heat for making remarks about “legitimate rape.”

The seat is believed to be safely Republican this cycle, though top Senate GOP leaders have hinted they believe a Greitens nomination could threaten the party’s hold on the seat.

Greitens has consistently polled in first place in the 2022 primary, followed closely behind by state Attorney General Eric Schmitt. But Hartzler over the weekend received the endorsement of GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, who had so far remained neutral.

Hawley’s political consultants last month released polling showing that his endorsement would likely have an impact on the primary: Fifty-four percent of voters said they were more likely to vote for a candidate who had his backing.

In Missouri, Democrat Lucas Kunce — who has led all candidates on both sides in fundraising — has so far spent the most on television ads. Hartzler’s six-figure ad buy will run Feb. 21 to March 18, coinciding with the NCAA’s winter championships.

Previous political advertisements touching on transgender issues have faced backlash, including one created by the conservative American Principles Project in 2020 that was rejected by Facebook.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misspelled Vicky Hartzler’s name.