With a U.S. House seat at stake, Washington Republican John Braun targets trans girls in sports

A Washington state lawmaker running for Congress is campaigning for a ballot measure that would ban transgender girls from girls’ school sports.

State Sen. John Braun, the Republican nominee in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, has spent the final weeks of his campaign promoting Initiative 638, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. The measure would require students participating in girls’ school sports to submit verification of their sex from a healthcare provider as part of their sports physicals. It would bar transgender girls from those competitions.

The focus on the culture war issue comes as Braun runs in a closely watched race to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. The contest could help determine which party controls the U.S. House.

Related: Washington Governor Signs Bill Protecting Transgender Kids from Estranged Parents

“It’s a common sense issue, it’s a fairness issue, it’s a safety issue,” Braun told Fox News this month.

Braun intensified his push for the measure after a group of high school athletes in Camas, Washington, declined to participate in a cross-country race to protest the inclusion of a trans teammate, as reported by OPB. The athlete, who previously competed in boys’ events, placed second in a girls’ junior varsity 5,000-meter race in September. Her participation subsequently attracted attention from anti-trans influencers online.

A poll released by Let’s Go Washington, which supports the ban, found 56 percent support for the initiative.

Braun’s embrace of the initiative adds an anti-trans campaign message to his effort to flip a seat Gluesenkamp Perez won in 2022.

Gluesenkamp Perez has also supported legislation that LGBTQ+ advocates oppose. She was among eight Democrats to support a bill in the U.S. House that could require schools to out transgender students to their parents.

But she opposes the Washington initiative as written, even as she expresses opposition to transgender girls’ participation in girls’ sports.

“I don’t think it’s fair to have people who are born boys compete in girls' sports,” Gluesenkamp Perez told NBC affiliate KGW. “I think this ballot initiative is going to open up more vulnerability, more problems than it is going to solve. I’m not saying there isn’t a problem to solve, but I disagree with the solution.”