Georgia, Alabama, Montana elect first transgender politicians to state legislatures despite $183 million spent on anti-trans attack ads

Republican candidates went out of their way to make transgender people a focus of the 2026 midterm campaign. In total, they spent (per ABC News) an estimated $183 million on attack ads focused on trans issues.

These claimed that Democrats want “sex changes for kids,” “sex-change surgeries on young children,” and “transgender mutilation of your children.” In Texas in particular, failed candidate Ken Paxton claimed (per Dallas News) that his victorious opponent James Talarico was “obsessed with transitions” and wanted to “transition your kids.”

Even Republicans consider this tactic may have backfired in an election largely focused on the cost of living and economic woes, with Former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan saying in mid-October (per Pink News) that “What Republicans are talking about is just not what the swing voter is really interested in.”

“A historic number of LGBTQ+ elected officials”

This strategy backfiring has arguably been borne out in the election results (per Advocate), with Southern states making waves by electing transgender people to their state legislatures for the first times. In Alabama, Alison Montgomery became the state’s first openly transgender lawmaker (and the first openly transgender woman in the state legislature).

Bentley Huggins in Georgia told a similar story, with them becoming that state’s first trans lawmaker, and also the first Japanese-American member of the Senate. Following them was Zooey Zephyr in Montana, a prominent trans rights advocate, who has also become that state’s first trans lawmaker.

Trans candidates also triumphed in Washington (Jaelynn Scott), Michigan (Joanna Whaley), Minnesota (Leigh Finke), and Wisconsin (Dina Nina Martinez). Incidentally, trans Democrat Sarah McBride also won her re-election bid for Delaware’s House seat, defeating Republican Joseph Arminio with a strong margin (around 68% in early counts).

Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson argues these victories are proof that Republicans wasted their money on these attack ads and that voters have bigger priorities, saying: (via HRC.org), “Tonight voters delivered a resounding message: equality wins. After two years of MAGA Republicans waging a culture war, wasting taxpayer dollars attacking LGBTQ+ people, and spending $340 million on anti-trans ads while families suffered, voters have had enough.”

She added that this is evidence that regular Americans just aren’t driven by hate, arguing: “In a historic rebuke, voters didn’t just reject LGBTQ+ hate, they have elected a historic number of LGBTQ+ elected officials. … The message from LGBTQ+ voters could not be any more clear: Our rights are not up for debate, our community will not be a political punching bag, and we are not going anywhere.”