Wave of PAC ads targeting transgender community texted to potential KY voters

A conservative political action committee’s text message campaign this Kentucky election cycle asks recipients to reflect on what they wanted to be as adults when they were kids.

“When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?,” a political advertisement backing Kentucky Republican gubernatorial nominee Daniel Cameron texted to potential voters from the political action committee, American Principles Project, begins.

“A doctor, an astronaut? How about the opposite gender? Kentucky tried to protect kids from a billion dollar transgender industry, but Andy Beshear vetoed legislation against this,” the ad continues. “Andy Beshear sided with the transgender industry, he doesn’t care about our kids. Vote against the liberal corporations he fights for.”

The national group is not affiliated with Cameron’s campaign, but it is supporting his bid to oust incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.

In recent weeks, multiple people have reported to the Herald-Leader receiving similarly anti-trans political text message ads from the national conservative PAC. It’s a narrative Cameron has backed in his own campaign, portraying the trans community as a threat to core family values.

The characterization by national PACs and Cameron that trans rights are the antithesis of Kentucky’s values and of Beshear as a willing tool of the far-left “woke” agenda — coupled with Beshear’s defense of himself in this way — has been a notable theme in this year’s election.

Republicans cite Beshear’s vetoes of a ban on trans girls’ participation in school sports and a ban on all gender-affirming health care for trans adolescents as proof the governor supports a radical agenda.

In July, Beshear even went so far as to release an ad saying he has never supported gender-reassignment surgeries for trans youth.

Calling gender-affirming care for transgender individuals an “industry” is a misnomer, doctors interviewed by the Herald-Leader have said. Kentuckians who are transgender make up an estimated 0.5% of the state population, and trans youth ages 13-17 comprise 0.7%, according to a 2022 study from the Williams Institute.

Another text ad with a 30-second video provided to the Herald-Leader again mentions the gender-affirming health care “industry,” saying, “The transgender industry has a partner in Andy Beshear. When the Kentucky legislature stepped up to stop the transgender industry and ban gender reassignment surgeries for minors, Andy Beshear vetoed the bill. We can’t trust Andy Beshear with our children. Daniel Cameron will protect our children.”

Like some of the more incendiary and inaccurate television ads favoring Cameron — one in October falsely suggested Democrats have passed policy to separate trans kids from their unsupportive families — the texted ads are paid for by the American Principles Project PAC. That’s a national conservative campaign advocacy organization, designates itself “America’s top defender of the family.”

And the focus on trans rights issues reaffirms a prevailing campaign tactic from some far-right conservatives in this political cycle: A reliance on culture war issues in hopes of getting more Republicans to the polls.

This national PAC has produced at least five video spots targeting Beshear and his veto of bills banning trans youth participation in sports and gender-affirming health care in this campaign cycle.

American Principles Project President Terry Schilling in September announced the PAC was launching a $2 million ad campaign targeting Beshear’s “extreme” record on LGBTQ rights issues.

“While Beshear still deceitfully claims to be a ‘moderate’ governor, voters deserve to know the truth: He is completely beholden to the radical transgender industry and has as extreme a record as almost any other governor in America,” Schilling said at the time in a statement.

The American Principles Project PAC ran similarly themed ads against Beshear in 2019’s gubernatorial race, when the Democrat defeated former GOP Gov. Matt Bevin by just around 5,000 votes.

The 2019 ads focused particularly on transgender athletes’ participation in sports, with one spot showing a teenage boy dominating a high school girls wrestling competition.

Though Bevin narrowly lost to Beshear, the PAC claimed its 2019 ads in Kentucky steered a considerable amount of votes toward Bevin. An analysis commissioned by the group and used in fundraising pitches showed that the ads on trans issues cut Bevin’s margin of defeat from 31,000 to around 5,000, according to POLITICO.

“Remember when things were normal?” reads another one of their ads recently texted to a Herald-Leader reporter.

“Remember when men were men and women were women? Remember when you didn’t have to worry about men being in the women’s locker room? Well, Andy Beshear vetoed legislation to protect women’s spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms. Vote against Andy Beshear to make things normal again.”

In his gubernatorial campaign, Cameron has backed a narrative that portrays the trans community and their allies as a demographic that sharply contrasts with what they describe as traditional Kentucky values.

His repeated vow to enforce two state laws already on the books that restrict rights of trans individuals in Kentucky is a prominent campaign message, his rhetoric often aligning with the more conservative flank of his party.

Cameron chose state Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, as his running mate. He was the lead sponsor of a 2022 law that bans trans middle- and high-school girls from playing in girls’ sports.

Beshear did veto it — and it was overridden by the Republican supermajority — citing in his veto message Kentucky High School Athletic Association policy that endorses trans athletes’ participation in school sports.

Mills also championed a law banning hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender-affirming surgeries for trans youth. Gender-affirming health care is the standard of care agreed upon by all major medical associations. Cameron and Mills have emphasized the need to enforce these laws because doing so will “help restore Kentucky’s true values.”

Beshear also vetoed this bill, but like with the sports ban bill, his veto was overridden by the Republican legislative supermajority.

“There are real consequences for letting men play in girls’ sports,” another text ad from the American Principles Project PAC reads.

“That’s why Kentucky standout swimmer Riley Gaines is sounding the alarm about Andy Beshear. He vetoed a bill to protect girls’ sports just a month after a man won the girls’ trophy she rightfully deserved. Vote against Andy Beshear, he won’t stand up for women’s sports.”

In 2021, Gaines tied Lia Thomas, who is trans, for fifth place in an NCAA championship race. In the years since, Gaines has become a darling among right-wing conservatives for her strong criticism of trans women competing in women’s sports.

She has appeared multiple times on the campaign trail with Cameron and Mills, warning of the dangers of allowing trans women to play in women’s sports. At a Lincoln Day Dinner in August, she called the push to be more inclusive of LGBTQ people, “moral versus evil.”

At a campaign stop on Nov. 3 in Bowling Green, Cameron, again joined by Gaines, once more vowed to be a leader that stands against trans rights and combat a “crazy, far-left agenda.”

“We have an opportunity together to say that our values matter, that we want leadership in this state that is going to stand up and protect women’s sports and biological males and is going to keep and protect our kids from these transgender surgeries,” he said.

After the event,, Cameron was asked by a reporter what his version of Kentucky would look like for trans residents if he’s elected governor.

“As Riley and I have talked about, you have got to have leadership in the state that is willing to say a man is a man and a woman is a woman, and I’m certainly going to do that,” Cameron said.

“I think Andy Beshear is out of step with the majority of Kentuckians, and he demonstrated that when he vetoed legislation that would have protected women’s sports from biological males.”

Gaines, too, is featured in at least two ads paid for by the American Principles Project PAC. In one called, “Protect Women,” she misgenders Thomas, and calls Beshear a “trans rights activist” for his veto of the trans sports ban bill.

“And this is Daniel Cameron,” Gaines says in a voice over. “He’s running against Andy Beshear. He’ll protect women and our sports.”

An automated call received by another Herald-Leader reporter Sunday evening featured a conversation between Gaines and Schilling, American Principles Project president.

Gaines called the allowance of trans women in women’s sports, “really, the erasure of women as a whole.”

Schilling added, “This election is going to determine the future of not just Kentucky, but the future of this country, when it comes to whether or not we’re going to have a country that protects our daughters, protects our opportunities and sports and protect them in their most vulnerable states.”

Herald-Leader writers Austin Horn and Tessa Duvall contributed to this report.