Don Davis promises fair sports, but voted ‘present’

Rep. Don Davis’s new campaign ad promises “a safe and fair space for women and girls in sports”; The Advocate called the message “GOP talking points” in an Oct. 10 post². In the ad, Davis stands on a football field and invokes his childhood on fields and his football career at the Air Force Academy. He says there are concerns about fairness and safety, argues that states should decide how to protect women and girls, and says North Carolina has decided¹. Parents of daughters deserve more than a campaign promise; they deserve a representative whose vote protects fair competition.

The Advocate reads the ad as a signal that he supports leaving the state's restrictions in place¹. Meredith College pollster David McLennan told WRAL Davis was “kind of trying to blunt the Republican attack.”³ A candidate does not blunt an attack on an issue that does not move voters, and the fact that Davis is running this message shows that it does.

“a safe and fair space for women and girls in sports”

In January 2025, the House passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act by a vote of 218-206. Davis was the only House member to vote “present,” rather than for or against the bill³. The measure would require school sports to recognize a student’s sex based on physical biology, according to Carolina Journal⁴. A promise of fair competition is not the same as a vote to establish a federal rule protecting it. Davis had the chance to take a clear position, and his “present” vote did not do so. Parents should judge a representative’s sports policy by the choice he makes when legislation reaches the House, not just by the words in a campaign ad.

Every Republican in North Carolina's House delegation voted for the bill, and three of the state's four Democrats voted against it, Carolina Journal reports. Davis was the fourth Democrat, and he took neither side. Mitch Kokai of the John Locke Foundation told Carolina Journal the non-vote is unlikely to please partisans on either side. If he sees the concern, why did he decline to vote on the bill that answered it? Parents of daughters in NC-01 should hold their congressman to the line on the roll call, and that line says "present."⁴

218-206

The Advocate reports that Republican state lawmakers redrew Davis’s district, making it more Republican-leaning¹. Davis faces Republican Laurie Buckhout in a November rematch in the redrawn NC-1 district, WRAL reports. WRAL reports that ads supporting and attacking Davis are focusing on his transgender-policy positions as both sides court moderate and conservative voters. That puts girls’ sports squarely into a competitive campaign: Davis is airing a message about protecting women and girls while political opponents are also making his record an issue³. The political signal is plain: candidates in this race have to address whether girls’ sports should be protected, and parents deserve more than a campaign line when they assess the answer.

The Cook Political Report rates NC-1 as leaning Republican, and in that district Davis is now running toward the girls' sports issue. The Advocate also notes that Davis co-sponsored the Equality Act¹, a record at odds with this campaign message. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC affiliated with Speaker Mike Johnson, is attacking Davis on transgender issues. Punchbowl News reports Republican groups are running anti-transgender ads in at least 10 competitive Senate races and nine swing House districts³. When a Democrat in a swing seat answers with a message about protecting girls, parents of daughters should hold him to his record.

The Advocate reports that the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s school and college sports teams and overrode then-Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto to enact it¹. The federal bill offered a different approach: it sought to clarify Title IX around biological sex and would bar federally funded athletic programs from allowing males into sports designated for biological women or girls, Carolina Journal reports⁴. Parents need representatives prepared to defend fair competition at both levels.

Family Brief supports keeping men out of women’s sports and protecting girls’ sex-based competition; that principle calls for a clear vote, not a present one. Davis should answer this directly before the November election: if the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act came before the House again, would he vote yes or no? Parents of daughters should demand that answer from their representative, and lawmakers should stand behind protections for women’s and girls’ sports.

Sources

1. North Carolina Dem Don Davis cuts transphobic political ad | Advocate.com
2. @TheAdvocateMag on X, 2026-10-10: The North Carolina congressman's new campaign ad adopts GOP talking points about protecting women and girls. https://www.advocate.com/politics/states/don-davis-transphobic-campaign-ad?utm_campaign=mrf-twitter-TheAdvocateMag&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=so, 2026-10-10
3. Ads in northeastern NC congressional district focus on gender policy to lure voters :: WRAL.com
4. Davis casts the only ‘present’ vote in Women’s Sports Protection Act