Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.) said this week that men and boys’ competing in women’s and girls’ sports is “not a burning issue,” even as she faces a barrage of negative attack ads over transgender issues.
When a reporter asked Baldwin if she believed that “biological men or boys [should] be allowed to play girls’ or women’s sports,” the Democrat did not give a direct response, but said she thought the issue was being handled “just fine” by local officials.
“This is not a burning issue. I believe that local communities can figure it out,” Baldwin said during an interview with WISN 12’s UpFront on Sunday.
Baldwin said her office reached out to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association—a nonprofit group that supports biological boys competing against biological girls, as long as the males are undergoing hormone therapy—and was allegedly told the group had only received four inquiries about the topic in the last 10 years.
Her comments come amid an ad war in the Wisconsin Senate race over Baldwin’s position on transgender issues that has dominated the waning weeks of the campaign. In recent ads, Baldwin’s Republican opponent, businessman Eric Hovde, slammed the Democrat for steering federal funding to a nonprofit group that reportedly provided free chest-binders to transgender teens.
Another recent ad from the Senate Leadership Fund accused Baldwin of supporting “providing puberty blockers and sex-change surgeries to minor children.”
The Baldwin campaign started running defensive ads that claimed Hovde was “falsely attacking Tammy Baldwin” by accusing her of supporting policies to help transgender children undergo sex changes.
While Baldwin has backed puberty blockers for transgender kids, she argued that sex-change surgeries aren’t currently performed on children in Wisconsin.
Hovde has spoken out against men and boys’ competing in female sports, which has become a growing topic of debate this election season. Republicans have accused Baldwin of supporting policies that allow transgender people who were born biological males to compete against biological females.
Baldwin’s opponents note that the senator voted in March to strike down an amendment that would have prohibited federal funding from going to schools that allow biological males to participate in girls’ sports.
The Senate race in Wisconsin is one of the most competitive of the 2024 election cycle and could determine party control of the Senate next year.
