Sherrod Brown – Official U.S. Senate photo by Rebecca Hammel
Former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat seeking a return to the Senate from Ohio, is pushing back against an attack ad claiming he supports gender-affirming surgeries for minors, calling it false and attacking Republican opponent Sen. Jon Husted for voting to block the release of the Epstein files.
Brown lost his seat to Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024, despite outperforming Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in Ohio by more than seven percentage points. He is now challenging Husted, who was appointed to the Senate rather than elected.
Brown’s race is a key contest in Democrats’ effort to regain control of the Senate, making him a target of conservative political action committees desperate to defeat him and preserve the Republican majority.
One ad, produced by the Senate Leadership Fund, features detransitioner activist Soren Aldaco, who claims she was “groomed” by strangers online starting at age eleven. She says that when she was 15, her doctor told her parents she was transgender, leading to hormone injections and, later, a double mastectomy that she says occurred without parental consent.
“Sherrod Brown supports sex changes for minors, irreversible surgery on kids like me,” Aldaco says. “I was confused. Sherrod Brown isn’t. He knows the consequences. Ohio’s kids deserve better, so did I.”
But as reported by Cleveland-based ABC affiliate WEWS, which fact-checked the ad’s claims, Aldaco was 19 when she received the surgery that she blames Brown for — presumably because of his support for transgender rights. That means she was an adult and did not need her parents’ permission to obtain the surgery. Aldaco was also living in Texas, not Ohio, when she received gender-affirming care — weakening her claims that Brown is responsible for her plight.
Additionally, any suggestion that minors can currently receive gender-affirming surgery in Ohio is misleading: Ohio law prohibits such surgeries and bans hormones and puberty blockers for minors, with limited exceptions for those already receiving medication. Republican lawmakers voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto in January 2024.
The claim that Brown supports surgeries for minors rests largely on a 2023 interview in which he said children’s health care decisions should be “between them, their parents, their families, their doctors — not politicians,” in essence rejecting an across-the-board ban on gender-affirming treatments.
Unlike other Democrats, who have been hesitant to engage on trans issues out of concern that voters are more aligned with Republicans, Brown is not holding back.
In a response ad, Brown counters Aldaco’s claims before attacking Husted for voting to block the release of the Epstein files.
The ad shows an image from the Aldaco spot as a narrator says: “Seen these ads? They’re a complete lie. Records show not only is this woman actually from Texas, she didn’t have any surgery as a minor.
“But, Jon Husted? He protected men who abused young girls by voting in the Senate to block the release of the Epstein files,” the ad continues, referring to a September 10, 2025, vote in which Husted joined 51 other Republican senators to block a measure seeking their release.
“Maybe that’s because Husted took over $116,000 from from associates of Jeffrey Epstein — 10 times more than any other senator,” the ad continues, referring to $116,892 that Husted accepted over multiple election cycles from billionaire Les Wexner, according to reporting cited by the Ohio Democratic Party. FBI documents identified Wexner as an Epstein co-conspirator, a characterization his attorney disputes.
Nike shareholders overwhelmingly rejected a proposal at the company's September annual meeting seeking greater scrutiny of its charitable partnerships, with a supporting statement targeting its LGBTQ outreach and transgender-inclusive employee benefits.
The resolution asked Nike to report on the "benefits, costs, and legal, reputational, competitive, and other relevant risks" associated with its charitable support for advocacy organizations.
The proposal's supporting statement cited Nike's perfect score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which evaluates companies' LGBTQ workplace policies and practices. Companies must offer transgender-inclusive health benefits to receive full credit.
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), a 22-term congresswoman representing Northwest Ohio, has released two campaign ads opposing "gender ideology" ahead of the November election.
The first ad was posted to X on September 17 by Medium Buying, a Columbus-based political advertising firm, according to the Buckeye Flame, an Ohio LGBTQ news outlet.
In the ad, Kaptur seeks to counter attacks portraying her and other Democrats as too supportive of transgender rights while redirecting voters' attention to the economy and affordability.
"We're stuck in another unnecessary war and inflation is making everything more expensive, but my opponent won't talk about all that," Kaptur says, referring to her Republican challenger, former state Rep. Derek Merrin. "He'd rather lie about my record.
Pennsylvania State Rep. Aaron Bernstine (R-Butler) has been accused of unleashing a homophobic rant in which he called openly gay State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia) an anti-gay slur and "joked" that the Democrat had lost weight due to AIDS.
According to PennLive, witnesses said Bernstine made the remarks following a confrontation with a member of the Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council during a September 29 Democratic fundraiser at McGrath's Pub in Harrisburg.
You must be logged in to post a comment.