Texas Voters Put Candidates’ Family Record to the Test
As Texas races take shape, voters can see whether candidates defend children and parental rights or repeat the 2020 mistake of avoiding these issues.
For Texas parents, the stakes come down to one test: which candidates will protect children from sex-change procedures and keep men out of girls’ sports.
Issues that decide elections
That test decides elections. In 2020, Trump’s campaign steered clear of these issues and lost. In 2024 he made them central, promising “We will not have men playing in women’s sports,” and won. Candidates who dodge the question in Texas now are repeating 2020’s mistake.
The record moves votes
Texas has already shown what pressure on these issues can do. In 2022, Terry Schilling says, Gov. Greg Abbott backed treating sex-change surgery on minors as child abuse after American Principles Project ran Fox News ads against him1. The same playbook has moved votes elsewhere, too.
- Schilling says APP’s paid media on girls’ sports gained Republicans more than 30,000 votes each in Arizona and Wisconsin in the 2022 midterms2.
- In 2024, pro-GOP super PACs ran locker-room and sports ads in the Montana, Ohio and Nevada Senate races3.
- The New York Times reported4 that a pro-Harris super PAC’s analysis found a version of the “Kamala Harris is for they/them, President Trump is for you” ad featuring Charlamagne tha God moved the race nearly 3 points toward Trump.
Schilling later put APP’s effect in the 2019 Kentucky governor’s race at 26,000 votes shifted for about $600,0005. Schilling summed up the campaign this way6.
“this really works. It moves voters.”6
— Terry Schilling
Watch the candidates
On the family side, Schilling set a goal of raising $10 million to $20 million more for the midterms7. Texas parents hold the last word at the 2026 midterm ballot. They should judge every candidate by his record on sex-change procedures, girls’ sports and parental rights, not by the size of his ad budget.
Sources
- The Assembly (NC), profile of Terry Schilling, 2025
- The Assembly (NC), profile of Terry Schilling, 2025
- The Assembly (NC), profile of Terry Schilling, 2025
- The Assembly (NC), profile of Terry Schilling, 2025
- The Assembly (NC), profile of Terry Schilling, 2025
- The Assembly (NC), profile of Terry Schilling, 2025
- The Assembly (NC), profile of Terry Schilling, 2025
FAMILY BRIEF The news and network for the American family.
