A vulnerable House Democrat is touting his support for restricting men from competing in women’s sports, even though he’s run from the issue in Congress.
Democratic Rep. Don Davis, who is up for re-election in North Carolina’s newly drawn 1st Congressional District, released a new campaign ad last week endorsing the state’s restrictions on transgender athletes as Republicans blitz the airwaves to exploit an electorally toxic issue the Left can’t give up.
“I spent my childhood on fields like this and played football at the Air Force Academy,” Davis said while standing on a football field. “Fair competition was at the heart of those games, but let’s be honest: there’s real concerns about fairness and safety.”
The 30-second spot aims to shore up support for Davis, whom Cook Political Report has described as “without a doubt, the most vulnerable House Democrat in the country.”
“That’s why I believe states should decide what’s right for protecting women and girls, and North Carolina has decided,” Davis says in the ad before concluding: “There should always be a safe and fair space for women and girls in sports.”
But Davis did not vote for the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” when it came before the House in 2023 or 2025. The federal legislation would amend Title IX to define sex solely by reproductive biology and genetics at birth. In April 2023, Davis skipped the vote altogether when the bill passed the House 219-203. Two years later, Davis voted “present” on the 2025 version of the bill, which also passed 218-206.
The Democrat was also an original co-sponsor of the Equality Act in 2023, legislation that would, according to The Washington Post, “make it unlawful to differentiate among girls and women in sports on the basis of sex for any purpose.”
Now, Davis is changing his tune as he faces Republican Laurie Buckhout in a rematch made more competitive by redistricting, which shifted the district from roughly even to an R+8 advantage.
Davis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He is not the only red-state Democrat to finally take a stand on an issue that cost the Democratic Party support in the 2024 presidential election.
“I voted with Republicans to keep transgender ideology out of our schools,” said Democrat Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur in a September campaign commercial. The House Democrat insisted she is now against men playing in women’s sports as she faces a difficult re-election bid in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District. “And boys should not play in girls’ sports.”
Unlike Davis, who skipped one vote and voted “present” on another, Kaptur voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act in both 2023 and 2025. The longtime politician is facing conservative state representative Derek Merrin in the Trump-carried district.
Still, Kaptur’s rush to the center angered leftist LGBT activists, who demanded she take the advertisement down.
“There is no difference between whether Marcy Kaptur or Derek Merrin serves as our next Congressperson — you are both united against the LGBTQIA+ community,” the LGBTQ group, Lucas County Stonewall Democrats, wrote in a public letter to her.
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