Anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has reached the point where accusing Democratic candidates of being transgender is not only commonplace, but encouraged by the president of the United States — including into the eleventh hour of the midterms. President Donald Trump has taken to calling Annie Andrews, the Democratic Senate nominee in South Carolina, a “trannie,” which is a derogatory slur for transgender people, usually women. He used it in a Truth Social post this month, accusing Andrews of being “in favor of Transgender for Everyone.” He used the slur to describe her several times at a recent rally in South Carolina.
Andrews isn’t the only one. This spring, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller declared that Senate candidate James Talarico is transgender, amid baseless speculation among conservatives that the Texas Democrat lacks testosterone. Vice President JD Vance also suggested at a rally this month that Talarico is gay, via a no-homo disclaimer about his own love for a man in the crowd.
Andrews is not transgender, and neither is Talarico (who also isn’t gay). But that doesn’t seem to matter. What does matter is that these Democrats have a chance, however slim, of being elected in deep-red states.
Talarico and Andrews are running surprisingly competitive races against Trump-backed candidates in a midterm cycle that may see Democrats sweep states across the country or even take the Senate. And in response, top White House officials have apparently decided that calling them gay or trans is a viable political strategy. As Republicans pour millions into anti-trans attack ads, their strategy on the campaign trail is becoming increasingly personal.
Wielding transphobia to browbeat political opponents is a decades-long tradition. And sometimes, it had consequences — including for titans like Walter Winchell, a newspaper columnist, radio commentator and pioneer of tabloid journalism who shaped media culture into what it is today: politically charged, fast-paced and full of pundits. In the four weeks leading up to the 1956 presidential election, one of Winchell’s radio sponsors received complaints from listeners offended by Winchell’s attacks on Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic nominee running against Dwight D.
Facing boycotts, the pharmaceutical company asked the radio network to get Winchell to stop. Instead, he escalated things. Jorgensen was well-known to Winchell’s audience: She was the most famous transgender woman in the world.
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