Texas Republican Calls Out GOP’s Costly Obsession With Anti-Trans Campaigns: "It’s Just Not Resonating"

This story originally appeared on The Advocate.Are transgender people no longer an effective scapegoat for the GOP? One Texas Republican leader says attacks on gender identity are falling flat in Lone Star State elections.Former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan told Texas Monthly that Republicans focused too much on culture war issues this election cycle and are paying the price. “We’re just not paying attention to the issues that matter,” he said.The rebuke came from a former speaker who has warred with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton. As speaker, he led the chamber in impeaching Paxton in 2023, when Paxton was Texas attorney general. As his political foe seeks a Senate seat, Phelan said the party could be in serious trouble in November, partly because of its fixation on transgender people.Related: Trump admits anti-transgender attacks are one of GOP’s ‘great sound bites’“We’re still running transgender ads. It’s just not resonating. $100 million in ads, $125 million in ads, and nothing’s moved the needle here in Texas in a month in the Senate race,” Phelan said.The spending follows a national Republican strategy that put transgender people at the center of the party’s 2024 advertising campaign. Trump and other Republicans spent $215 million on anti-transgender ads that cycle, according to AdImpact data reported by The Associated Press. Among them were Trump’s ads targeting then-Vice President Kamala Harris with the tagline, “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.”Elon Musk’s America PAC has carried that strategy into this year’s midterms. As The Advocate reported in September, the group launched ads attacking Democratic Senate candidates James Talarico in Texas, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Josh Turek in Iowa, and Mary Peltola in Alaska over transgender athletes and gender-affirming care. The attacks came as Musk reportedly prepared to spend at least $100 million helping Republicans retain power, with the PAC’