In a variety of competitive races this election cycle, Republican-aligned groups have appealed to voters who are uncomfortable with transgender participation in sports, hoping to depress support for Democratic candidates.
One of those races is Montana’s Senate contest, where Democratic Sen. Jon Tester faces Republican Tim Sheehy.
In September, the Senate Leadership Fund — a political action committee backing Senate Republicans — launched an ad that said, "Jon Tester ignored parents who don’t want biological men competing in girls’ sports. Tester voted to let men compete against our girls in their sports. Those aren’t Montana values."
This assertion is essentially identical to ones that we have fact-checked in U.S. Senate races in Ohio and Nevada. In both cases, we rated the claim False.
The amendments Tester voted on would have stripped federal funding from schools and colleges that allowed transgender girls and women to compete in sports matching their gender identity. They did not dictate athletic eligibility. Federal law rarely dictates who is eligible for specific sports.
"As a former public school teacher and school board member, Jon Tester believes these decisions should be made at the local level," the Tester campaign said in a statement to PolitiFact. "He has never voted to allow men to compete against women."
The attack ad cited votes Tester cast March 6, 2021, and March 22, 2024, against amendments to two broad spending bills. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., sought to attach both amendments, one to the 2021 American Rescue Plan and the other to a 2024 bill funding multiple federal departments.
The amendments would have barred federal funds from being spent on a "state, local educational agency, or institution of higher education" if they permit "any student whose biological sex (recognized based solely on a person's reproductive biology at birth) is male to participate in an athletic program or activity designated for girls or women."
The Senate Leadership Fund did not respond to PolitiFact for this article.
But when we examined the claim from the group’s Ohio ad, Senate Leadership Fund Communications Director Torunn Sinclair defended the ad’s phrasing by saying the amendments linked school funding to whether or not transgender women were allowed to compete in sports matching their gender identity.
"You're funding something, which is a vote to allow something to happen," Sinclair said.
But the federal government does not govern sports eligibility. So, a vote for or against these amendments would have had no bearing on team eligibility, either.
U.S. high school sports are decentralized; each state typically makes its own rules about who can participate. Twenty-six states have laws or regulations barring transgender athletes from competing in sports matching their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank focused on LGBTQ+ rights and voting access.
Montana is one state that bans the practice.
Federal law addresses compensation, amateur status, antitrust or other civil issues but not who is, or is not, allowed to participate.
Governing bodies, such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, determine who is allowed to participate in specific competitions.
Some federal laws, such as Title IX, prohibit sex-based discrimination for programs receiving federal funding, which includes nearly all public schools, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. President Joe Biden unveiled new rules in April that cover gender identity under Title IX, though the rules did not specifically address transgender athletes in sports.
Forcing votes like this is a common legislative tactic for both parties.
As we noted in another fact-check involving a different Tester vote, both Democratic and Republican senators have introduced amendments structured to force members of the other party to support or oppose policies that could be controversial with constituents. Senators in the majority, as Tester was during both votes, need to plow through these amendments to get the larger bill passed. Sometimes, this means voting for something that could be used by a future opponent. Otherwise, a bill already passed by the House would have to be sent back to the House to resolve differences, an impractical course given funding deadlines.
Our ruling
The Senate Leadership Fund said Tester "voted to let men compete against our girls in their sports."
Tester voted against two amendments to broader spending bills that would have stripped funding from schools that allowed transgender athletes to compete in sports matching their gender identity.
However, those amendments did not determine athletic eligibility. Also, Montana is one of 26 states that bars transgender athletes from competing in sports matching their gender identity.
We rate the claim False.
Our Sources
Senate Leadership Fund, ad, September 2024
Roll call vote on March 6, 2021, amendment
Roll call vote on March 22, 2024, amendment
Congress.gov, S.Amdt. 1781 to H.R. 2882 text, March 23, 2024
PolitiFact, "Republican super PAC twists Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s votes on transgender athletes," Oct. 10, 2024
PolitiFact, "Republican Sam Brown wrong on Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen’s transgender athlete votes," Oct. 29, 2024
PolitiFact, "In Montana Senate race, Tim Sheehy airs inaccurate illegal immigration attack on Jon Tester," Sept. 30, 2024
Movement Advancement Project, Bans on Transgender Youth Participation in Sports, accessed Oct. 8, 2024
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics transgender athlete policy, April 8, 2024
NCAA, Student-athlete eligibility web page, accessed Oct. 7, 2024
Axios, "Senate GOP doubles down on anti-trans attack ads," Oct. 28, 2024
Email interview with Steven Smith, political science professor emeritus and former Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy, Washington University in St. Louis, Oct. 30, 2024
Statement from the Tester campaign, Oct. 30, 2024
