Transgender Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) said President Donald Trump’s “Kamala is for they/them” campaign ad resonated with voters in part because Democrat leaders “remained silent” instead of responding to the attack during the 2024 election.
In an interview with The Hill’s “In the Know” columnist Judy Kurtz, McBride was asked about the Trump campaign ad that appeared to be highly effective and asked whether Democrats needed to handle the issue differently going into the midterms and the next presidential race.
“In the 2024 White House race, there was an ad from the Trump campaign saying that Kamala Harris is for they/them and Donald Trump is for us. I believe it was featured in your documentary as well. It seemed to be pretty effective,” Kurtz asked. “Do you think, going into the midterms and then the next presidential race, Democrats have to be careful in how they handle this issue so they are not pushed off balance by Republicans?”
“Well, I think the degree to which that ad was effective in the last election was a byproduct of two major issues,” McBride responded. “One was the perception that people had that Democrats were not fighting for bold, broad-based economic policy as our top priority. And the second was that we were silent in the face of the ad.”
McBride said many Democrat leaders were unsure how to answer the Trump campaign’s messaging and ultimately chose not to respond.
“I think many of our political leaders in that moment were concerned about how to respond and therefore sort of remained silent,” McBride added. “I think some of the lessons learned from the 2024 cycle are that we have to be able to respond. We have to be willing to respond.”
The interviewer referenced Trump’s 2024 campaign ad, “Kamala Is for They/Them. President Trump Is for You,” which has been viewed more than 632,000 times and received over 22,000 likes on YouTube.
