EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a statement released by the National Federation of Stonewall Democrats late in the evening on Thursday, Sept. 10, reprinted here in its entirety:
We have a failed president, picking trade wars with our closest allies, fighting an illegal war in the middle east and gutting institutions from the Smithsonian to the White House itself. Families are getting crushed by the cost of gas, rent, groceries, health care. People want someone who’s actually going to bring those costs down. That’s the fight and Democrats should be winning. They won’t by falling for the Republicans’ only response: a phony “debate” about transgender Americans.
“Democrats should be focusing on Trump’s tanked economy and our diminished standing on the world stage,” said Jeremy Comeau, president of the National Federation of Stonewall Democrats. “People are being hammered by the cost of living, and we have a president who’d rather rename a gulf like some deranged cartographer than deal with the realities of the world. Democrats should be running on that every single day.
“Instead, some candidates think the way to look moderate is to take a swing at trans people first. That’s not moderate; that’s just careless, and it’s not what’s going to win this election.”
We keep seeing the same thing play out in race after race, from Massachusetts to Texas: Republicans shout, “Candidate X is for sex change surgery for children.” Democrats fumble the response, and try to look responsible with either a carefully hedged answer in an interview or by something even more foolish, failing to point out that the Republicans are just avoiding the facts: More American soldiers have died in Trump’s Iran misadventure, all this year, than there have been children getting gender affirming surgery in all of recorded time.
In short, the attempt to signal to voters that you’re not “too far left” on this one issue means you’re buying into a phony Republican issue, and not dealing with what’s really on voters’ minds.
When candidates treat trans people like a problem to manage instead of people they represent, it sends a message, loud and clear, that civil rights are up for negotiation whenever it’s convenient.
National Federation of Stonewall Democrats
Candidates should have one message this cycle: to convince voters that they’re serious about the economy. Talk about drug prices, housing costs and fully funding schools. The government should be focused on those issues, not on intruding into a family’s conversations with their doctors.
When candidates treat trans people like a problem to manage instead of people they represent, it sends a message, loud and clear, that civil rights are up for negotiation whenever it’s convenient. That doesn’t win over the voters you’re chasing. It just tells the people already showing up for you, knocking doors, making calls, that they’re expendable.
So here’s our ask: Run on the economy. Run on it hard. Talk about health care, education, the cost of living — all of it. Just don’t build that campaign on the backs of a community that has always shown up for this party.
We’ll keep supporting candidates who get that a winning coalition is something you grow, not something you shrink to fit a poll.