By Kansas Democrats are trying to win the governor’s mansion in one of the most reliably Republican states in the country. But they just can’t quit being for “they/them.”
Cindy Holscher, the Democratic nominee for governor and a state senator, is facing renewed scrutiny over comments in which she said she had no idea whether Jesus Christ was transgender, gay or straight—remarks she made while defending drag performances accessible to children, according to The Washington Examiner.
The episode is another reminder that, even in Kansas, Democrats seem unable to leave the culture war alone and continue to be obsessed with transgenderism.
Holscher made the comments in 2023 during a debate over legislation aimed at restricting certain drag performances in front of minors.
In a March 7, 2023, social media exchange, another user asked whether Holscher was suggesting Jesus was transgender after she posted an illustration of Jesus surrounded by children while criticizing the proposed restrictions.
Holscher replied, “I have no idea if Jesus was trans, gay, straight, etc.”
She continued, “But you seem to imply that a sacred figure is ‘less than’ if they aren’t straight. That’s too bad,” before requesting “proof that schools are grooming children.”
The exchange centered on Kansas Senate Bill 149, which sought to expand the state’s crime of promoting obscenity to minors to include certain drag performances. The proposal was introduced in 2023 but ultimately died in committee.
Holscher had criticized the legislation in an earlier post, writing that it would make certain drag performances with children present a crime. She accompanied the post with an illustration of Jesus sitting with children and asked, “So, what about this???”
Three years later, the exchange has returned just as Holscher is trying to persuade Kansas voters to put another Democrat in the governor’s office.
Holscher won the Democratic nomination earlier this month and will face Republican Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson in the Nov. 3 general election.
Masterson immediately seized on the old remarks.
“She mocked Jesus Christ to defend drag shows for kids, and she’s never apologized,” Masterson said, describing Holscher as the most radical liberal nominee in state history.
Holscher’s campaign dismissed the attack, arguing that Masterson was digging through years-old social media posts instead of focusing on issues such as household costs and property taxes.
That response, however, gets at the larger problem facing Democrats.
Voters have repeatedly demanded a return to kitchen-table issues. Yet Democrats, elected officials and activists, keep plunging themselves back into fights over gender, sexuality and religion.
In 2024, President Joe Biden issued his annual proclamation recognizing March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility. That year, March 31 was also Easter Sunday, putting the White House at the center of a furious backlash from Christians.
And the issue did not disappear when Biden left office.
Earlier this summer, Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth marked Pride Month by wearing a shirt declaring, “YOU CAN PEE NEXT TO ME.” It was another striking example of prominent Democrats embracing transgender politics even as the party tries to win back working-class and culturally moderate voters who have been telling them to focus on something else.
Now the same fight has arrived in Kansas.
Holscher could be talking almost exclusively about taxes, schools, agriculture and the cost of living as she campaigns in a state Donald Trump won comfortably. Instead, Republicans have been handed footage of the Democratic nominee wondering publicly whether Jesus Christ might have been transgender.
That is the political trap Democrats cannot seem to stop walking into.
Holscher defeated state Sen. Ethan Corson and Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary. She now heads into November trying to flip the Kansas governor’s office while Republicans argue that her comments reveal how far the modern Democratic Party has moved on questions of faith, sex and gender.
For Democrats hoping the culture wars would fade into the background after Biden left office, Kansas is offering a different lesson: Their own candidates keep bringing them back. It’s what they really do believe.
[READ MORE: Iran Puts Bounty Heads Of American Soldiers]
