Transgender voters are praising Democratic US House candidate Christina Bohannan of Iowa for responding to her Republican opponent’s recent anti-transgender attacks by releasing an ad that doesn’t agree to right-wing framing on trans issues. Some Democrats have responded to similar attacks by saying that they support restrictions on trans people’s civil rights, angering trans voters and their allies.

Trans journalist Erin Reed noted that Bohannan’s opponent, US Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), has mailed flyers stating that Bohannan “wants your tax dollars to fund sex-change surgery” and adding, “When Iowa voted to protect girls’ sports, Christina Bohannan voted NO.”

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In her recent response ad, Bohannan says, “I’m Christina Bohannan. As the only one in this race who ran track in high school, it matters to me that girls’ sports are fair. That’s why Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ false smear campaign is downright pathetic.”

“What Miller-Meeks is doing in Washington, siding with the drug companies, taking their money and sticking it to Iowans, that’s what’s really unfair,” the ad continues, claiming that Miller-Meeks took over $4 million from drug companies and “Washington special interests.”

“I’m Christina Bohannan and I approve this message because I’ll cut middle-class taxes, shake up Washington and always put Iowa first,” Bohannan’s ad concludes.

Reed praised Bohannan’s response, and noted that Iowa US Senate candidate Josh Turek, gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, and US House candidate Sarah Trone Garriott, are all Democrats who have fended off similar attacks by their transphobic Republican opponents.

Turek said in a debate, “I do not believe that biological males should compete in female sports” and supported a national federal funding ban on gender-affirming care. Sand recently said, “Girls’ sports are for girls and boys’ sports are for boys,” and said he opposes “taxpayer-funded sex changes.” Garriott released an August ad saying, “I oppose letting men in women’s locker rooms.”

The statements of all three of the aforementioned Democrats used right-wing framing which identifies trans people by the sex they were assigned at birth, rather than their gender identity. This framing has been used by Republicans to deny public accomodations, civil rights, bodily autonomy, and legal protections to trans people.

“While those Democrats have decided that their transgender constituents are no longer worth protecting, Christina Bohannan’s approach may be closer to what is becoming the prevailing wisdom even among those running these ads,” Reed wrote of Bohannan’s ad.

A commenter wrote on Reed’s website, “[Bohannan’s ad] was indeed an adroit (and I think effective) way to just disarm the grenade, as it were. She understands how to not get sucked into the mud. Thank you!”

Miller-Meeks served as a representative in her state’s House from 2021 to 2023. During that time, she voted against House File 2416, legislation banning trans girls and women from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams across all K-12 public and private schools, community colleges, and NCAA- or NAIA-affiliated state universities. Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed the bill into law on March 3, 2022.

An archived version of Bohannan’s campaign website also shows that she argued that Iowa should allow Medicaid funding to pay for gender confirmation surgery. She noted that the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that refusing such funding violates the Iowa Civil Rights Act, which guarantees equal healthcare access to trans individuals.

Gov. Reynolds ignored the court’s ruling by saying the law doesn’t require government health care programs to cover gender confirmation surgery. She signed a law banning Medicaid from covering gender-affirming surgeries and hormone therapy on July 1, 2025.