Elon Musk is trying to drag the midterm debate away from inflation and gas prices and turn it into a referendum on transgender issues.
His America PAC began airing ads this week accusing Democrats in key Senate races of backing the “radical transgender” policies that let men play in women’s sports and fund sex changes for children.
It’s a familiar line of attack. President Trump leaned hard into it two years ago in his race against Vice President Kamala Harris, using the issue to paint Democrats as captive to a radical ideology and out of step with most Americans.
Now Mr. Musk’s super PAC is extending that attack to Senate races.
In Iowa, the group is running an ad against Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek that accuses him of supporting “taxpayer‑funded sex change surgeries for children” and policies that “let biological men enter girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms.” The narrator concludes: “Josh Turek voted to put our daughters and their teammates in danger.”
A similar spot is airing in Ohio against Sen. Sherrod Brown. “Just two years ago, we fired Sherrod Brown because Brown put the trans agenda ahead of Ohio’s values,” the female narrator says. It accuses him of supporting legislation to allow “biological men to enter women’s locker rooms and bathrooms,” and backing sex changes for children. The narrator ends with: “Let’s defeat Sherrod Brown and his radical agenda again.”
Democrats say Republicans are trying to distract from the economy — the top concern for most voters.
Gallup polling released in May shows the public mood on transgender issues has grown more skeptical.
The share of Americans who consider changing one’s gender morally acceptable has dropped eight points over the past five years, to 38%. Other surveys from Pew Research and Reuters/Ipsos find similar patterns: broad discomfort with biological men participating in women’s sports, divided views on gender‑transitioning care for minors, and sharp partisan splits. Democrats tend to be more supportive.
The new spots are running in battleground states where both parties are trying to define the race before voters lock in their impressions, and Republicans hope the ads will help energize conservative voters.
For Mr. Musk, the richest man in the world, the issue is a personal one.
His biological son, Xavier, legally changed his name to Vivian Jenna Wilson in 2022, adopting her mother’s maiden name to distance herself from her biological father. In court documents, she said she no longer wished to be related to Mr. Musk in any way.
Two years later, Mr. Musk said in an interview with conservative commentator Jordan Peterson that his son “Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus” and that he had been “essentially tricked” into agreeing to gender‑transitioning care.
“So I lost my son, essentially,” he said. “I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that.”
In a 2024 interview with NBC News, Vivian described Mr. Musk as a “cruel” and absent father during childhood.
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