Texas Republican calls out GOP’s costly obsession with anti-trans campaigns: ‘It’s just not resonating’

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’s initial midterm ads focused on transgender issues. Phelan’s warning now raises questions about the continued effectiveness of that expensive strategy.

Related: A GOP super PAC twists a Texas adult’s transition story to scare Ohio voters with an ad full of lies

“Let’s be honest. The 8 to 10 percent of voters in the middle who are going to decide this election, when they hear stuff about boys in girls’ sports, they don’t even know what you’re talking about. This never happened in their communities, and they’ve been hearing about it for so many years, and so many other people have been accused of it. What Republicans are talking about is just not what the swing voter is really interested in.”

The ads also come years after Texas banned transgender girls from girls’ public school sports in 2021 and expanded that ban to trans women in collegiate sports in 2023. Republicans are continuing to campaign on restrictions they have already enacted.

Meanwhile, Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico has backed some restrictions on transgender rights, saying he would oppose trans female athletes playing in girls’ sports “if it endangers safety or fairness” and that he would support a ban on gender-affirming surgeries for minors. LGBTQ+ advocates have criticized those positions.

Phelan said the party’s focus on issues that proved politically successful in previous elections was failing to resonate as Texas becomes more competitive.

“This is 2026. This is not 2020. This is not 2018,” he said. “I don’t know. But Texas is becoming a battleground state.”