A little girl walks into a bathroom and screams. Sitting there, scowling inside the stall, is the man who might be your next representative.
“I’m your Republican congressman,” the man says. “Now that we’re in charge, I’m checking to make sure there’s no trans people in the wrong bathroom.”
She protests; he insists. “I won the last election, and this is my priority. Now, let’s make sure you’re really a girl.”
This is the premise of the latest ad by the Progress Action Fund (PAF), a left-wing PAC running ads to “disrupt the right-wing media bubble,” as its website says.
The ad is incisive, unsettling, and to the point. It’s exactly the kind of thing this PAC is known for.
Joe Jacobson, PAF’s executive director, wants to see the left wage a meaningful counternarrative to Republicans’ anti-trans hate. “There was no counter in 2024, and that was devastating for Democrats,” he told Erin in the Morning. “Rather than just sidestepping the issue, we need to have a counter, and the testing shows our counter is effective.”
According to independent randomized controlled testing, the “Republicans in Your Bathroom” ad can move swing voters 8 points toward Democrats, as per a press release from PAF. The group is also the creative force behind viral, in-your-face attack ads against Republicans, like “Republicans In Your Bedroom” and “Republicans Blowing Your Taxes.”
“Republicans In Your Bathroom” will primarily run in Texas and Ohio, two key battleground states in this midterm election. The ads are expected to reach 50 million Americans.
It’s a welcome antidote to the GOP’s fearmongering about trans people. This includes an Ohio ad by the Senate Leadership Fund, which featured a Texas woman who falsely claimed she underwent gender-affirming surgery as a minor, without parental consent. There was also an attack ad against James Talarico that emphasized he’s “too weak” for Texas as a trans flag waved in the background. And Iowa’s Sarah Trone Garriott was the target of an ad campaign that lambasted her for supposedly supporting trans-inclusive sports teams.
It’s no surprise, then, that Elon Musk’s PAC spent over $100 million on ads this cycle, with a heavy focus on trans issues. Nor is it a shock to learn that in 2024, Republicans spent almost $215 million on network TV ads attacking the transgender community.
Unfortunately, some Democrats in high-profile races appear to cede ground to this hateful rhetoric. Trone Garriott, for example, released an ad in response to allegations that she supported the trans community by declaring that she opposes “men in women’s locker rooms,” which is a pejorative often used to describe transgender women and girls.
But Jacobson’s response? “Republicans are creepy as hell,” he said in a statement. “Democrats need to grow a spine and call Republicans out for their creepy fetish of monitoring children’s bathrooms.”
Hit 'em where it hurts!
We need this playing EVERYWHERE.