Op-Ed: The Blue Wave Has Drowned Out Transphobic Fearmongering

The blue wave has finally reached shore. On Tuesday, and in the days leading up to it, Americans made their voices heard at the ballot box. Polls across the country had indicated a resounding victory for Democrats that has materialized tonight in the form of a majority in the U.S. House and Senate. While midterm elections are often considered a referendum on the sitting president — Barack Obama faced an electoral “shellacking” in 2010 after his “Hope and Change”-fueled 2008 victory — this one had a different feeling. In many ways, the American people were fed up. In polling leading up to the 2026 midterms, voters indicated that there were a host of issues that motivated them. Gallup polling showed Americans were concerned about the economy (87%), healthcare (77%), the worsening conflict in Iran (77%), income inequality (66%,) and still-too-high gas prices (62%). Notably absent from the list of top issues? Transgender people. And yet Republicans poured $183 million in advertising on trans issues, according to the Associated Press. That money appears to have been wasted. While Tuesday’s Democratic victory is certainly a rebuttal to Republicans’ strategies for dealing with the country’s panoply of problems — for example, its overfunding of ICE and its food industry deregulation, which caused an economic catastrophe and transformed every supermarket aisle into a viral incubator this summer — it also marks a loud refusal to buy into Republicans’ argument that trans people are to blame for everyday issues. In race after race nationwide, rather than face the country’s toughest problems, the GOP has instead asked voters to “Look over there!” and hope that issues such as gender-affirming care, trans athletes, and pronouns will shore up enough support to keep its grip on its current electoral power. Tonight, it largely didn’t work, shaming Republicans who bet big on the strategy and raising questions about Democrats who capitulated in advance.I