(NewsNation) — While the economy, abortion and immigration all remain top issues for voters in the 2024 election, the campaign for Republican nominee Donald Trump is trying something different.
Trump and his allies are spending tens of millions of dollars on political ads focusing on anti-transgender issues in the weeks leading up to the election, especially ones playing in key swing states.
There is no broad consensus on policies affecting transgender individuals, though most Americans oppose laws that limit or ban access to gender-affirming care for minors, a June Gallup poll found.
Sixty-nine percent of adults in the same survey said they believe transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that match their sex assigned at birth, up from 62% in 2021.
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Still, Trump is spending more on ads revolving around transgender women and girls in sports and gender transitions in prisons than Bidenomics, fracking and taxes. During a taped town hall with female voters in Georgia on Fox News, Trump said he would ban transgender athletes from competing on sports teams matching their gender identity through executive order.
According to an analysis of advertising data from AdImpact by The New York Times, Republicans have spent more than $65 million on television ads in more than a dozen states on these topics.
About $30 million was spent in just the last four weeks, and $9 million was spent in swing states such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, Democrats are more focused on abortion: Democratic nominee Kamala Harris‘ campaign team is buying a billboard criticizing Trump’s conservative stance on the procedure.
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During the town hall, Trump, in his response to a question about transgender issues, referenced a viral video of a transgender college volleyball player in California spiking a ball in her opponent’s face. The player hit with the ball was unharmed, and the transgender athlete’s team ultimately lost the match in straight sets.
“I never saw a ball hit so hard,” Trump said, referring to the video. His administration, he said, will “absolutely stop” schools from allowing transgender athletes to play on sports teams that match their gender identity.
“You can’t have it,” he said.
When pressed by Faulkner on how he would prevent trans athletes from competing, Trump said he would “just ban it.”
“The president bans it,” Trump said to cheers and applause from the audience. “You just don’t let it happen. Not a big deal.”
Trump has pledged on multiple occasions to bar transgender women and girls, whom he calls “men,” from female sports if he returns to the White House next year but has not outlined how his administration would do so.
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The former president in 2022 promised to sign several executive orders intended to combat “left-wing gender insanity” in the U.S. if he is reelected, including an order instructing federal agencies to cease programs that “promote” the concept that a person can transition to a different gender.
In May, Trump said he would similarly reverse new transgender student protections that were instituted this year by the Biden administration “on Day 1” of his presidency.
The Education Department’s new Title IX regulations, to which Trump was referring, cover discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools and education programs but do not apply to athletics.
A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
Trump and Republicans have seized on transgender issues ahead of November’s election, blanketing the nation in campaign ads that paint Democrats who support transgender athletes and gender-affirming health care as extremists who will harm children if they are elected.
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The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Sunday called transgender athletes “a 2024 sleeper issue.”
Half of the nation has enacted laws prohibiting transgender student-athletes from competing in accordance with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ policy think tank, though Republican lawmakers backing the policies have struggled to cite examples of transgender girls competing in their states.
At least three separate bills to ban transgender athletes from sports nationwide were introduced this Congress by House Republicans. One of them, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, passed the House but failed to advance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
NewsNation partner The Hill’s Brooke Migdon contributed to this report.
