Iowa Democrat’s new ad takes on anti-trans attacks without throwing transgender people under the bus

An Iowa candidate for Congress is pushing back against anti-transgender attacks in new ads without treating LGBTQ+ people as obstacles to knock down.

Christina Bohannan released a digital video of herself on a track in Iowa-branded athletic gear, discussing her history in women’s sports. The Democrat is challenging Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who has criticized Bohannan’s vote in the Legislature against a transgender sports ban. But in the ad, Bohannan turns the focus to Miller-Meeks’ own record.

“I was proud to run track in high school so it's pathetic that Mariannette Miller-Meeks is trying to panic you about girls sports instead of tackling our toughest problems,” Bohannan says to the camera. “Miller Meeks picked her team: the Washington special interests.”

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Miller-Meeks last month posted an online attack on Bohannan’s past advocacy for LGBTQ+ Iowans.

“When Iowa voted to protect girls’ sports, Christina Bohannan voted NO,” the Republican posted. “Girls deserve a fair playing field. I’ll always stand up for our daughters and granddaughters.”

Miller-Meeks and her allies have also promoted video of Bohannan criticizing sports bans. “They’re introducing these bills and making these comments to try to make a point,” Bohannan said in a clip aired on Fox News. “And I think even that is really damaging to people and sends a very bad message about our state that’s going to make the state look like a backwater.”

In her latest ads, Bohannan shifts the focus to what she calls $4 million in special interest donations Miller-Meeks’ campaign accepted.

“My team will always be Iowa,” Bohannan says to the camera. “That means cutting middle class taxes protecting Social Security and Medicare and fighting for our reproductive rights.”

But unlike some Democrats running for Congress and facing similar attacks over transgender participation in sports, Bohannan does not retreat from her position on equality for transgender Iowans.

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A separate version of the ad, published by trans journalist Erin Reed on her Erin in the Morning site, more directly addresses transgender participation in sports. “As the only one in this race who ran track in high school, it matters to me that girls’ sports are fair,” Bohannan says to the camera. “That’s why Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ smear campaign is downright pathetic.”

While Bohannan doesn’t make an explicit case for transgender athletes to compete on teams that align with their gender identity, she also does not pledge in the ads to vote against bills like the Equality Act or to support laws that take decisions away from sports governing bodies.

Instead, she criticizes the incumbent for voting against capping insulin costs. “Siding with the drug companies, taking their money? That’s what’s really unfair,” Bohannan says.

The approach drew praise from Reed, who contrasted it with responses from Democrats voicing opposition to allowing trans girls to compete on girls’ teams.

“More Democrats are beginning to take Bohannan’s approach rather than the anti-trans one,” Reed wrote. “In a debate this week, Montana’s Sam Forstag called his opponent’s attacks ‘fear-mongering’ meant ‘to distract’ voters while Republicans ‘pick our pockets,’ and in Ohio, Sherrod Brown has answered anti-trans attack ads by turning them back on his opponent rather than adopting their talking points.”