Senate Democrats Unanimously Oppose Protecting Women’s Sports
Democrats can continue to defend the indefensible for as long as they want, but voters are starting to catch on.
On Monday evening, Senate Democrats voted unanimously to block a Republican-sponsored bill aimed at preventing federally funded schools from allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports. In a 51-45 party-line vote, Democrats filibustered the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025, which needed 60 votes to advance.
BREAKING: The Senate just voted to invoke cloture to proceed with the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
The vote was 51 to 45.
It FAILED to receive the 60% vote threshold to avoid a filibuster.
It had already passed the House 218 to 206. pic.twitter.com/YGpxX17UwZ
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) March 4, 2025
This 51–45 vote was along party lines, with all Democrats voting in opposition. pic.twitter.com/PBEZWmgMVb
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) March 4, 2025
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) introduced this legislation. Following the vote, he posted on X that he would “NEVER stop fighting to protect women and girls.”
Well, at least now the American people know the truth.
Even after @realdonaldtrump’s landslide election, Democrats STILL support men competing in women’s sports.
This is far from over. I’ll NEVER stop fighting to protect women and girls.
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) March 4, 2025
Why do Democrats think this is a hill to die on is baffling. It is a losing issue for them. The majority of voters agree that biological men should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports.
A New York Times/Ipsos poll conducted in January found that 79% of those surveyed were opposed to the participation of “transgender female athletes — meaning athletes who were male at birth but who currently identify as female” in women’s sports. Just 18% said they “should be allowed.”
After voting to kill the bill, Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, who is up for reelection next year, equivocated. He explained that he doesn’t think “transgender women should be able to compete in women’s sports if the other women object.” [Emphasis added.]
Considering that most female athletes very much object to competing against biological men to the point where they are forfeiting games in protest, Hickenlooper’s remark sounds utterly ridiculous.
He told NBC, “Sen. Tuberville is trying to churn the social wars about something that really doesn’t exist.” He added, “I saw the ads [during the 2024 election cycle]. I think that’s the kind of ad that works once. I don’t think it’ll work again. It’s an infinitesimally small group of people that are really trying to find their ways.”
Is he nuts?
Despite voting against female athletes, @Hickenlooper said he doesn’t think “transgender women should be able to compete in women’s sports if the other women object.”
Sorry dude, you own this vote. No backsies.
Enjoy your 2026 campaign with this garbage vote on your record pic.twitter.com/IYOBzBy30y
— WomenAreReal (@WomenAreReals) March 4, 2025
Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan also downplayed the significance of this issue. Peters told NBC that Democrats need to focus on the economy.
“This is not really an issue like in Michigan,” he said, “I think there are hundreds of thousands of athletes, there’s like two individuals that are actually in this situation. People are going to realize that it’s really been an issue that Republicans have trying to exploit.”
Retiring at the end of his current term, Peters will never have to defend his choice to voters.
On the other hand, Elissa Slotkin, the newly minted junior senator from Michigan, will. Maybe that’s why she skipped the vote.
Gary Peters never has to face voters again — he has quit politics
Elissa Slotkin does, and she’s smart enough to not author 2030 campaign commercials against herself https://t.co/LRZQNrH58w
— James David Dickson (@downi75) March 4, 2025
Adam Wren, a national politics correspondent for Politico, reported that “a group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials & party leaders gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a retreat where they plotted their party’s comeback.”
They came up with a list of “20 solutions for how Democrats can regain working-class trust and reconnect with them culturally.” Number one on the list? The party should “embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery.”
Call me crazy, but allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports conflicts with all three of these ideals.
Democrats are able to identify the right strategy in theory but they struggle to resist making the wrong choices in practice.
Democrats can continue to defend the indefensible for as long as they want, but voters are starting to catch on. The party is losing the public’s trust — yet they keep doubling down on stupid.
New @playbookdc: Last month, a group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials & party leaders gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a retreat where they plotted their party’s comeback.
We got their takeaways. pic.twitter.com/lA1nVshriG
— Adam Wren (@adamwren) March 2, 2025
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
I thought the liars were all about civil rights and fairness.
Amazing that the democrats had a big pow wow to determine why they lost in 2024. I think that opening their eyes and look at this vote where the Country is 80-20 and see they are 0-100
It’s called “representative government.”
Stupid!
“The party should “embrace patriotism, community, and traditional American imagery.”
Birthing parent, swimming, and eggplant pie!
“Democrats are able to identify the right strategy in theory but they struggle to resist making the wrong choices in practice.”
More like, ‘they struggle to find ways to continue making the wrong choices in practice.”
“On the other hand, Elissa Slotkin, the newly minted junior senator from Michigan, will. Maybe that’s why she skipped the vote.”
This is just an expression of hate directed at the Bad Orange Man.
There is no intelligent life left in the democratic party.
There’s nothing ‘democratic’ about the democrat party.
Always remember fetterman voted for this crap
I have never accepted he’s “moderate “
He’s not a TDS-addled chowderhead and is unambiguous in his backing of Israel. In every other regard he’s a bog-standard leftist. That is, unfortunately, what passes for moderation in today’s Dem party.
Outside of Israel is full blown left retard and believe me, he bids his full blown TDS
Read Fetterman’s X statement on this insanity
So on the insane democrat farm
Time for a female athlete who has been forced to compete against males to write an open letter to Hickenlooper saying she objects and demand he do something about it.
Make them do a real filibuster. Let them talk 24 hours a day about how men are the best women. lol
men are obviously the best women when it comes to sports. Mediocre men win titles and set records when they become women for sports purposes.
Democrats have now become nothing but resistance. The people of America are not their concern, but power and opposing Trump is all they offer.
What a stripe of evil. Regrets to girls coming of age with these perverts running the show for so long.
Here’s one in Wa state. Looks like the Trump admin is stepping in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taKbJARicP8
The good news is that this move should guarantee the Democrats some sure votes since …”among U.S. adults, 0.5% (about 1.3 million adults) identify as transgender.”
Of course it may cost them some vote among the other 99.5% of the population, but I can live with that….
https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/
So just keep it on the floor and let them filibuster it. Let them defend their vote.
Not permitting transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports is not discriminatory. Transgender athletes can still participate in (or at least, try out for), men’s sports. Male scholastic & collegiate sports has always been a open category, only known as “men’s sports” because so few women were capable of competing against men. Women’s sports were developed (and at least until recently) protected from the participation of men because women needed a closed system that allowed them to compete exclusively against other women.
What the transgender movement has done is create an open class of women’s sports, allowing those men who are uncompetitive against other men to participate in, and therefore dominate, the class, when an open class for transgender participation already existed and still exists.
I really hope that the stupid communists continue to choose this as their Hill to die on since this is an 80/20 issue.
What ever happened to the good old days when a naked man in a girls’ locker room would be arrested?
“Well, at least now the American people know the truth.”
Optimist. The Dems depend on their party’s propaganda arm to not bother with informing the voters about immaterial* things like this vote.
* Immaterial: Anything which has a distinct possibility of impacting election results negatively for the party.
B/C men and women are equal
the game continues
Democrats persist in “being on the wrong side of every door.” This is another 80-20 issue where they line up with the less thn 20% of the voters. If they persist in this, they will lose much ground in the midterms in both the House and Senate and may even cease to be a major party. In our history the Federalists and the Whigs both were replaced as major parties. It can happen again. Democrats, continuing to thumb their nose at the voters, are committing institutional suicide. Men in women’s sports and in women’s locker rooms is not an issue to die for. Yet, all the Ds in the Senate voted for men where they don’t belong. They will pay for that in the political ads in 2026.