One of the candidates vying for Southwest Washington’s competitive U.S. House seat, Republican state Sen. John Braun, has spent the final sprint before Election Day campaigning for himself but also running hard for a ballot measure that would ban transgender girls in girls’ youth sports.

Braun — who is endorsed by President Donald Trump — is running to flip Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, a seat that’s been held by Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez since 2023 and was held by a Republican for the preceding 12 years. As one of a small number of potential House pick-ups for Republicans nationwide, it’s a closely-watched race.

For most of his time on the campaign trail, Braun has focused on economic issues and energy and tax policy. But in recent weeks, his campaign has zeroed in on a different question — the inclusion of transgender girls on girls’ sports teams, an issue appearing before Washington voters this election in the form of a ballot measure.

Braun has made several social media posts urging voters to support state Initiative 638. According to the ballot language, the measure would “prohibit students it defines as ‘biologically male’ from competing in certain school athletic activities intended for female students only. It would require verification of biological sex by students’ healthcare providers.”

De Stewart, President of PFLAG Vancouver, a nonprofit peer support, education and advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ people, says the campaign push for I-638 is a distraction.

“I think it’s a tactic by conservatives and Republicans to try to get away from the issues and attack the trans community instead,” she said.

Braun’s campaigning for the measure comes amid a midterm cycle that appears likely to favor Democrats nationwide and in a district that twice rejected conservative populist Joe Kent — who often campaigned on social and cultural grievances, including those related to trans rights.

Braun seized on the ballot measure in the past week after a group of high school girls in Camas — which is in the 3rd District — chose not to participate in a cross-country race to protest the inclusion of a transgender teammate who had previously competed on the boys’ team.

The story gained traction nationally, thrusting the teenagers into the middle of a heated controversy just weeks before Washington voters decide the fate of the measure.

“It’s a common sense issue, it’s a fairness issue, it’s a safety issue,” Braun said in an appearance on Fox News on Oct. 16. “It’s simple biology.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Braun appeared alongside other Republican state lawmakers at a rally and press conference in Camas, which featured student athletes and parents from three high schools — Battle Ground, Camas, and Skyview in Vancouver. OPB viewed the rally on a livestream filmed by a local activist who runs YouTube and social media accounts named “The Transphobic Historian.”

Sarah Burns, a parent of one of the Camas cross-country runners who chose not to race last week, said girls like her daughter deserve safe and fair places to compete.

“They should be able to focus on being teenagers and competing in the sport that they love and not carrying the burden of fighting to be heard,” she said.

If voters approve the ballot measure — which some polling suggests is plausible — Washington would become the 30th state with laws or regulations banning transgender students from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

I-638 ended up on the ballot after the conservative political action committee Let’s Go Washington gathered more than 400,000 signatures at the beginning of this year. Supporters and opponents have raised large sums of money throughout the campaign.

If the measure passes, it would make Washington the only state in the country to require every student who wants to play on a girls’ sports team to provide a signed form from their healthcare provider verifying their sex assigned at birth, according to Stewart with PFLAG. The ACLU of Washington says it would be the most restrictive measure of its kind in the country. The measure’s language states the verification would need to rely “only on one or more of the following: the student’s reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels.”

This aspect of the measure in particular has drawn sharp criticism from opponents, who have organized under the campaign No Hate in WA State and include a broad coalition of Democratic elected officials, labor unions, civil liberties groups, LGBTQ advocates, tribal governments and healthcare providers.

Dr. José Flores-Rodarte works as a family physician at HealthPoint SeaTac, a nonprofit community health center that serves a large Medicaid — known as Apple Health in Washington — population.

His job involves conducting sports physicals, which he says don’t usually involve a genital exam unless a student has symptoms that prompt one. He says the biological sex verification required under the ballot measure is “extremely invasive and unnecessary.”

“We’re worried about this as an equity issue,” said Flores-Rodarte, who is also the secretary-treasurer of the Washington Academy of Family Physicians, a statewide coalition of thousands of providers that recently put out a statement opposing the ballot initiative. “I mean, already, this is discriminatory. It requires sex verification for girls playing girls’ sports, but it doesn’t require any verification the other way around.”

He’s also concerned that students whose families can’t afford hormone or genetic testing would be forced to undergo genital exams.

“That’s not comfortable for anybody,” he said, adding that the measure could discourage girls from playing sports altogether. “I think that it’s denying opportunities while also harming everybody else.”

Braun’s campaign manager did not respond to requests for comment.

Braun’s opponent in the 3rd District race, incumbent Gluesenkamp Perez, does not support the state ballot initiative. In a statement to OPB, she said that while she agrees “it isn’t fair for boys to compete in girls’ sports,” the decisions should be left to schools, athletic associations and families “who can account for the real differences between a middle school softball team and a college championship.”

“What I won’t support is a rule that forces girls to prove their sex to the state every year just to play sports,” she said. “We can agree on the problem without accepting a solution that subjects girls to that experience.”

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has said it’s aware of about 10 transgender students statewide who participate in school sports, though the organization said there are likely more students who have not self-disclosed.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/21/washington-transgender-student-athletes-trans-sports/