Annie Andrews answers Republican attacks with ad on transgender athletes

Dr Annie Andrews, the Democratic Senate candidate in South Carolina, has released an ad responding to Republican attacks about transgender athletes, The Guardian reported on October 9. The pediatrician states her opposition to transgender women competing in women’s sports and addresses a claim about gender surgery for minors. Her response puts a dispute over campaign messaging at the center of her Senate race.

In the direct-to-camera ad, Andrews says: ‘I don’t support biological men playing in women’s sports, and I don’t support and haven’t ever performed gender surgery for minors.’ Those are Andrews’s stated positions and account of her own medical practice. The Guardian described the ad as an answer to recent attacks by Donald Trump and a super PAC supporting her Republican opponent, Darline Graham.

What prompted Andrews’s response ad

According to The Guardian, the super PAC ad claims Andrews ‘is for they/them’ and depicts a transgender person as predatory toward a child. Those are claims and imagery used by the opposing campaign’s supporters, not established descriptions of Andrews’s views or of transgender people. The Guardian also reported that Andrews had previously voiced support for transgender people. Her new ad addresses the criticism directly by stating positions on sports and surgery.

The wording of the attack has a recent national precedent. The Guardian reported that pro-Trump groups used a ‘they/them’ message against Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential campaign and that the ad targeting Andrews uses nearly identical language. That resemblance explains the campaign context; it does not show how South Carolina voters have responded to either the attack or Andrews’s answer.

Why Democrats disagree over the campaign message

Andrews’s ad arrives amid a broader disagreement among Democrats over how to respond. Axios reported on October 5 that candidates in competitive districts were using different messages about transgender issues. It quoted Representative Mark Pocan, co-chair of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, saying candidates feel a need to answer attacks while balancing that response with issues on which Democrats are winning.

In Ohio, Representative Marcy Kaptur aired an ad saying she had voted with Republicans to keep ‘transgender ideology’ out of schools and that boys should not play in girls’ sports, Axios reported. Her ad followed an attack by Republican Derek Merrin about transgender athletes. Several county Democratic parties condemned Kaptur’s wording, particularly its description of transgender girls as ‘boys’. Equality PAC called the language unacceptable and said it was not supporting her campaign at that time.

Kaptur’s campaign spokesperson, Kylie Blitzer, told Axios that Kaptur favored parental input and local decisions on girls’ sports, while focusing on lowering costs and opposing special-interest influence. Axios also reported that New York candidate Blake Gendebien and North Carolina Representative Don Davis had used ads discussing transgender participation in sports. Davis said states should decide how to protect women and girls.

The disagreement extends to campaign strategy. Axios quoted Welcome PAC co-founder Liam Kerr defending candidates running in districts carried by Trump; it reported that Trump won Kaptur’s district by 11 percentage points in 2024. Third Way senior vice-president Lanae Erickson told Axios that the group’s research found unanswered anti-trans attacks reduced Democratic support by about eight points, and that some responses recovered support. The underlying study was not reviewed, so that account cannot establish what Andrews’s ad will do in South Carolina.