While Democrats nationwide are tripping over themselves to justify their continued support for allowing boys to play in girls’ sports—a policy that is both illegal and highly unpopular—at least a handful of Michigan Democrats have wisened up.
Eight Democratic state representatives voted last week in support of a resolution calling on the Michigan High School Athletic Association to change its transgender participation policy and ensure the state’s K-12 sports teams are sex-exclusive.
The resolution was largely symbolic, but passed 66-43, with all 58 House Republicans voting for it plus the eight Democrats: Alabas Farhat, Angela Witwer, Peter Herzberg, Reggie Miller, Tullio Liberati, Denise Mentzer, Will Snyder, and Mai Xiong.
Their willingness to break with their own party over this is even more refreshing considering the tantrum Michigan Democrats threw when the resolution was introduced.
State Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield, for example, slammed it as a “bullshit culture war” issue pushed by a “feckless” Republican majority that wants to distract Michiganders from “checking their 401ks.”
And when asked if she’d open up the resolution for a vote in the state Senate after it passed the House, the upper chamber’s Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, replied: “We will not be attacking kids.”
Is that what she thinks her House Democratic colleagues were doing?
The difference between Arbit and Brinks, who have clearly lost their minds, and the eight House Democrats who have not (yet), is the people they represent.
Both Arbit and Brinks represent predominantly white and affluent districts chock-full of liberal moms whose primary concern right now is lecturing their neighbor about the optics of owning a Tesla.
I mean, are they serious about standing against fascism or not?
Democrats like Farhat, Herzberg, and Liberati, on the other hand, represent working-class districts where reality is still a thing that exists.
Farhat, in particular, represents much of Dearborn and its large Muslim population. Democrats don’t like to admit this, but they are wildly out of step with Muslim voters—and many other minority voters, for that matter —when it comes to social issues such as transgenderism.
Indeed, Democrats’ dogged commitment to social radicalism is likely a key reason why President Donald Trump was able to flip Dearborn in November, becoming the first Republican since President George W. Bush in 2000 to win the city.
Farhat understands that, even if his colleagues don’t.
“We want to make sure there’s a fair environment… to compete in,” he said during a recent interview when asked why he voted for the GOP-led resolution. “And I’ll just be honest, that’s where it comes from for me.”
“I would prefer us prioritizing conversations around affordability, around housing,” he continued. “I would prefer those conversations to be at the forefront instead of resolutions like this. But you know, again, for me it’s an issue of fairness and my district has very strong opinions on this stuff.”
But Farhat’s constituents are far from the only Michiganders who support keeping boys out of girls’ locker rooms and sports teams.
Polling has repeatedly demonstrated that the vast majority of voters, including a majority of Democrats, agree participation in athletics should be based on biological sex, not “gender identity.”
That’s why Republican state Rep. Jason Woolford introduced a separate bill which—unlike the resolution—would carry with it binding requirements for school districts to separate athletics into male and female divisions.
When asked if he’s heard from any of his Democratic colleagues, specifically the eight who supported the House’s resolution, regarding his legislation, Woolford told Michigan Enjoyer that the number of critics, even from the Left, is far smaller than one might think.
Publicly, however, mum’s the word.
In fact, none of the eight Democrats besides Farhat, whose limited comments were mentioned above, have been willing to comment publicly on their vote for the House resolution. I reached out to each of their offices but never heard back.
Perhaps these Democrats don’t want to draw any more attention to themselves given the litany of abuse they’ve already received from left-wing activist groups in the state.
Or maybe they’re worried the Democratic Party apparatus will make their lives hell, which it has proven fully capable of doing.
But what they need to understand is that the future of the Democratic Party in swing states like Michigan doesn’t look like Noah Arbit, Winnie Brinks, or the left-wing radicalism they’re still trying to sell.
Just ask California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who despite governing as a rabid culture warrior for eight straight years in a heavily blue state, has been forced to admit that maybe—just maybe—female athletes shouldn’t be forced to compete against biological males.
The political make-up of the electorate has changed, and the Democratic Party must change with it. Michigan’s Lonesome Eight have an opportunity to embrace and even force that change.
Come 2028, the rest of their party will be thanking them.
Kaylee McGhee White is editor-in-chief of Independent Women Features, a Steamboat Institute media fellow, and a columnist for Michigan Enjoyer. Follow her on X @KayleeDMcGhee.
