Numerous Democratic midterm candidates have previously made anti-trans statements or voted for anti-trans legislation. Trans journalist Erin Reed published a list yesterday of these candidates and advised her followers not to vote for them, lest their victories convince the Democratic Party “that throwing transgender people under the bus is a winning strategy,” Reed wrote.
I hope Dems win, but I won’t be surprised if they lose. Democrats who move rightward in an effort to gain more voters seem to think they can do so without consequence. It should not be surprising that when a political candidate tells a group of voters, “I don’t need y’alls vote” that group responds accordingly.
People can pontificate about what the voter base should do in these circumstances, weighing costs and benefits, but at the end of the day, the decision to lose voters is made by the running politician. This group of Democrats believes that they will gain more anti-trans voters than they pro-trans voters they will lose. It seems very similar to the Democratic strategy in 2016 of, “For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs…” to get Hillary Clinton elected.
Rather than focus on the appropriate ways the voter base should respond, people should be focused on why these Democrats are running a strategy proven to fail.