Conservative says voters care more about attacking trans kids than anything else

Michael Knowles — The Daily Wire broadcaster who called for eradicating “transgenderism” and who believes that all demons are trans — says that the 2024 Republican presidential candidates should focus on transgender kids rather than “bread and butter, dinner table issues” that voters actually care more about.

In a recent broadcast, Knowles — who believes that hypnosis porn” turns adult men into trans women and that egg donation is slavery — said that Republican presidential candidate former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is doing badly in national polls rights now because he “said that he would trans the kids.”

Related:

Michael Knowles wants mass arrests at Pride events if Boebert is charged in “Beetlejuice” groping

The conservative pundit called on conservative DAs to arrest drag queens and Pride parade participants for “perverse and unnatural” behavior.

Knowles doesn’t explain his claim, but he may be referring to Hutchinson vetoing a law banning gender-affirming care for trans minors in 2021. The legislature overrode his veto and the ban became law anyway.

“What we’re being told by all the genius GOP consultants is we’ve got to turn away from the culture war issues. We’ve got to focus in on the bread-and-butter dinner table issues. No one wants to hear about ‘transing the kids’ or anything like that,” Knowles said.

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“That is the issue that was decisive in this case. That is the issue that destroyed Asa Hutchinson’s career,” he continued, offering no evidence to support his claim. “That is the issue that got Glenn Younkin (R) elected governor in Virginia…. That is one of two issues that made [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis (R) the number two guy in the presidential race, having been relatively unknown just a few years ago.”

“This is not just some fringe online thing. Transing the kids resonates nationwide and motivates people to go out and vote,” he concluded.

He’s wrong. An April Fox News poll showed that, among registered voters, transgender issues ranked 14th among the “most important issues facing the country today.” The economy, cost of living, gun violence, political extremism, corruption, national security, immigration, climate change, crime, racism, abortion, homelessness, and healthcare all ranked much higher.

Also, while DeSantis has become infamous for banning gender-affirming care for minors and banning trans-inclusive policies in schools, his popularity in the media resulted more from his opposition to the school and business shutdowns, mask mandates, and vaccination requirements during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conservatives widely praised his opposition to the cautious approach of White House COVID-19 advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, although Florida was also among the states with his highest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths.

It’s terrible advice to tell other candidates to follow DeSantis’ transphobia seeing as DeSantis has consistently trailed behind fellow candidate and former President Donald Trump in national polls by margins of up 25% to 48%. DeSantis is currently losing the race by a lot, and Knowles wants others to follow him.

Trump, on the other hand, hasn’t made trans youth a central plank in his presidential campaign either. If anything, he has gained more popularity by constantly antagonizing his political enemies and casting himself as a perpetual victim of a left-wing “witch hunt.”