Democrat faces calls to resign over criticism of issue that destroyed Kamala Harris’ billion-dollar campaign

The blame game among Democrats for Kamala Harris’ crushing defeat Tuesday night was intense and questions remained.

Was she the right candidate? Should President Joe Biden have resigned sooner? Haven’t the out-of-control Democrats done enough to retain working-class voters who have supported them for decades?

Nancy Pelosi turned the knife on Friday, saying the party she has led for years should have had more time to consider its options beyond the vice president.

But one issue that has baffled many on the left is how on earth the Harris campaign failed when up to $1 billion was spent filling TV and cell phone screens with messages.

The finger pointing will continue until the campaign for the next presidential election begins again in 2028.

But despite all the accusations, it could have been just two words that did the most damage to Harris’ chances of becoming president: “they” and “them.”

Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton was one of the few voices in his party to speak out against the liberal stance on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports.

Democratic presidential candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, makes remarks conceding the 2024 US presidential election to newly elected President Donald Trump

As such, he faces calls to resign, but is told not to The New York Times he stands firm in his beliefs, citing the fact that he is the father of two daughters. ‘

“Democrats spend far too much time trying not to offend anyone, instead of being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” he said. ‘I have two little girls. “I don’t want them to be run over on a playing field by a male or former male athlete, but as a Democrat I should be afraid to say that.”

As a result, his top aide Matt Chilliak quit and Moulton was panned by Democrats and LGBTQ groups.

It is at the heart of an issue that many believe led to Harris’ downfall.

Donald Trump’s team released an ad about Harris’ stance on transgender rights shortly after Biden made his dramatic decision not to run.

It focused on a comment the vice president made in 2019 when she concluded she would support transgender prisoners undergoing taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries.

The attack ad worked well on both an economic and social level with the tagline: ‘Kamalas for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

While Harris and her allies compared Trump to Adolf Hitler — and said he would focus on revenge in his second term — this ad seemed to resonate most with voters.

Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton was one of the few voices in his party to speak out against the liberal position on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports

Donald Trump’s campaign ran ads highlighting his opponent’s record on transgender issues

DailyMail.com pollster JL Partners, which predicted Trump’s historic victory, surveyed 1,000 voters a week before the election.

“When the ads changed character, Donald Trump was the beneficiary. That’s when we saw the vote for Trump rise – unlike when the Harris campaign focused on the issues, including abortion,” James Johnson, founder of JL Partners, told DailyMail.com.

“Focus groups suggested that Harris took her Hitler comment too far with independents and further consolidated Trump’s base. And she also invited attacks on her own flank, especially on transgender issues,” he added.

Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, added: “Protecting children from the dangerous transgender industry played a key role in Donald Trump’s defeat of Kamala Harris.

“Both CatholicVote and the Trump campaign have spent heavily to highlight Harris’ extremism, including her aggressive support of exploitative transgender medicine and surgeries paid for by American families.”

Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, completes the 200-meter freestyle for the University of Pennsylvania during an Ivy League swimming meet against Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on January 22, 2022.

He added: ‘Traditional medical ethics, scientific studies and now even left-wing experts have recognized that these experiments pose serious risks to children and are deeply unpopular.

“Why Kamala Harris chose to embrace this issue remains one of the most puzzling elements of her flawed campaign.”

JL Partners asked about the ads from both campaigns, and which ones appeared more often in the final days of the campaign.

In the extensive questionnaire, 31 percent of all Americans said they had seen a political advertisement.

In the seven swing states, the main targets of each campaign, this number rose to 49 percent.

Of those shown a political ad, 66 percent said they had seen one from Kamala Harris, compared to 58 percent who had seen one from the Trump campaign.

Donald Trump won the election after running ads about Kamala Harris’ character

Ads about Trump’s character from the vice president’s side were the most seen at 31 percent, quickly followed by abortion at 18 percent.

Just under three in ten (28 percent) saw a Trump-backed commercial attack on Harris’ character, while 20 percent crossed the line — one of the key themes of the third Republican campaign in the White House.

But one of the Trump campaign’s most high-profile ads focused on Harris and transgender rights.

It included footage from 2019 of Harris saying she supported taxpayer-funded operations for transgender prisoners.

Transgender rights have become increasingly prominent in political discourse in recent years.

Trump repeatedly said during his campaign that he would ban “biological males” from participating in women’s sports.

advocates react while another takes a selfie as Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris makes remarks conceding the 2024 U.S. presidential election

AdImpact data from 2024 showed that $123 million was spent on ads targeting transgender athletes.

AP VoteCast data published in the aftermath of the election that collected voters’ attitudes suggested the reporting was successful.

Gallup polls from 2021 to 2023 showed that Republican opposition to transgender athletes playing on a team that matches their gender identity had already risen from 86 percent to 93 percent.

Harris was asked about her position and past policies during an NBC interview in October, in the final stages of the campaign.

She dodged the question and said the matter should be left to doctors.

“I think we should follow the law,” Harris began during an interview with Hallie Jackson.

Jackson interrupted Harris, noting that Trump was “trying to define” her on the issue and that he was spending millions of dollars in advertising on it.

“I’m asking you to define yourself,” Jackson replied.

Kamala Harris is interviewed by Hallie Jackson on NBC

Harris said, “That’s a decision that doctors will make in terms of what is medically necessary. I’m not going to put myself in the position of a doctor.’

She dismissed the series of questions as a “distraction” and then highlighted Trump’s more dramatic proposals for the country.

The Trump campaign bombarded households across the country with its ad.

‘Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you,” the ads conclude.

The vice president also dodged a similar question from Fox News host Bret Baier when asked whether she still supports taxpayer-funded operations for illegal immigrants.