Anti-Trans Democrats Blown Out In North Carolina Primary Election

Anti-trans Democrat Nasif Majeed lost to Veleria Levy, who ran on a pro-LGBTQ+ platform. Other conservative Democrats lost as well on primary day.

In recent months, some political pundits and organizations have called for the Democratic Party to moderate on transgender issues or cast transgender people aside for votes. Groups like the Searchlight Initiative and Democrats like Seth Moulton and Tom Suozzi as well as Governor Gavin Newsom of California have all leaned into this idea. Last night, however, primary elections in North Carolina told a different story: if you abandon transgender people, your Democratic voters will abandon you. The state's most prominent anti-transgender Democrat, Nasif Majeed, fell to progressive challenger Veleria Levy, who ran on a pro-LGBTQ+ platform, by more than 40 points. Other anti-trans and right-leaning Democrats lost their own primaries as well.

In July 2025, Majeed became one of the most consequential anti-transgender Democrats in the country. He provided the sole Democratic vote necessary for Republicans to override Governor Josh Stein's veto of HB 805, a sweeping anti-trans omnibus bill that banned legal transition through a discriminatory definition of sex, required transgender people's birth certificates to include their assigned sex at birth, extended the statute of limitations for suing gender-affirming care providers, banned gender-affirming care for incarcerated people, and censored school library books. Asked to explain his vote, Majeed offered only: "There were some moral issues in there that I had some sentiments, some deep sentiments about it." Afterwards, the North Carolina Democratic Party revoked his access to VoteBuilder, the party's voter contact software. Majeed had been so entrenched in his district that he ran unopposed in his 2024 primary. Now, he will no longer represent District 99.

Instead, the district will be represented by progressive Democratic challenger Veleria Levy, a community health policy advocate with more than 20 years of experience in healthcare and HIV advocacy. Levy had garnered a slew of progressive endorsements throughout the primary, including from FLIP NC, Carolina Forward, the Sunrise Movement, and the North Carolina Progressive Caucus. She ran on an explicitly pro-LGBTQ+ platform, writing on Facebook that "this campaign has always been about showing up for working families, Seniors, LGBTQ+ neighbors, immigrant communities, veterans and students to ensure our values are consistently represented in Raleigh." She won 69% to 27%. No Republican filed for the seat. Levy will take office unopposed.

Veleria Levy facebook

While Levy's victory was the most notable of the night, other anti-transgender and right-leaning Democrats faced similar fates. Former Representative Michael Wray, who voted with Republicans to override vetoes on both a transgender sports ban and a youth gender-affirming care ban in 2023, attempted to reclaim his seat after losing his 2024 primary by just 34 votes to Rodney Pierce. Wray even appealed to Republicans in his district to temporarily switch their voter registration so they could vote for him in the Democratic primary. It didn't work. Pierce, who had campaigned explicitly against Wray's record of voting with Republicans, demolished him in the rematch, 64% to 36%. Conservative Democrat Carla Cunningham, who was the sole Democratic vote to override Governor Stein's veto of an ICE cooperation bill and declared on the House floor that "all cultures are not equal," lost her own primary to Reverend Rodney Sadler, 70% to 22%.

Anti-transgender Democrats have not fared well in recent years. In 2023, Texas Democrat Shawn Thierry voted to pass a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth, giving a speech on the Texas House floor calling transgender girls "biological males" and arguing that conversion therapy was the true solution to gender dysphoria. The following year, she lost her primary runoff to Lauren Ashley Simmons, a Black queer union organizer, in a 65-35% blowout. A similar result came in Kansas, where Democrat Marvin Robinson was the sole Democratic vote to override Governor Laura Kelly's veto of a transgender sports ban—a vote his Democratic colleagues accused him of trading to Republicans in exchange for $250,000 in funding for a community gazebo. He lost his 2024 primary, receiving just 22% of the vote.

In recent years, many Democrats have tried to suggest that the party should drop transgender issues and cave to Republicans to curry votes. This is despite the American public siding with Democrats on transgender issues over Republicans at a +22 margin according to a recent Fox News survey. Democratic politicians like Seth Moulton and Tom Suozzi blamed transgender issues for Harris’s loss, with Moulton expressing concern that his two daughters might be “run over on a playing field” by trans girl athletes. Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed multiple trans-protective bills while even agreeing with Shawn Ryan, a far-right podcaster, that 25 might be too young for someone to transition.

Now, however, there is hope that this strain of anti-transgender sentiment may face resistance moving forward. Anti-transgender Democrats who cast a deciding vote against their own party's values risk their political futures, that much is clear from recent elections. The message from Democratic voters is not subtle. Abandoning transgender people does not win you new supporters—but it may win you an uphill primary challenge you are likely to lose.