New Hampshire’s all-Democrat federal delegation has not been shy about calling out President Donald Trump during his first two weeks back in office. On tariffs, on funding freezes, on cuts to foreign aid — the four Democrats who represent the Granite State in Washington, D.C., have had plenty to say about Trump policies.
One glaring exception: Trump’s executive order banning biological males from girls’ sports. On this issue, local Democrats at the state and federal level are a loud “no comment.”
Trump signed the order on Wednesday, which happened to be National Girls and Women in Sports Day, surrounded by future and former female athletes. His order directs federal agencies like the Justice and Education Departments to withhold federal tax dollars from institutions that violate Title IX which prohibits sex-based discrimination in the allocation of federal funds.
That includes discriminating against women by allowing biological males to play on their teams.
“My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes. We’re just not going to let it happen,” Trump said. “With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over.”
Last year, the state of New Hampshire passed a law protecting girls from being forced to compete against biological males, including those who identify as female. Every single Democratic state lawmaker voted against it.
Just last month, both U.S. Reps. Maggie Goodlander and Chris Pappas voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025.
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has long been an advocate of treating self-declared “gender identity” the same as biological sex, signing a letter in 2016 urging the federal Department of Education to do just that regarding Title IX regulations.
And yet, since Trump signed his executive order on Wednesday, Granite State Democrats have been silent. That wasn’t the case a year ago.
“This bill is a ban, and it goes around the NHIAA, the local districts, Babe Ruth, NCAA –it goes around all of them and it’s really just a small group of politicians in Concord who are unfortunately pushing a national agenda,” House Minority Leader Alexis Simpson said last spring.
Fast-forward to Thursday, and Simpson and Senate Minority Leader Rebecca Perkins Kwoka did not respond to a request from NHJournal for comment.
Neither did a single member of the Granite State’s all-Democrat congressional delegation.
Even the three LGBT members of New Hampshire’s Democratic leadership — Pappas, Perkins Kwoka, and state party chair Ray Buckley — refused to respond to requests for comment.
Why?
Supporters of girls-only sports point to the polls. A new poll from the left-leaning New York Times found 79 percent of Americans support the Trump policy. That includes 67 percent of Democrats. The same poll also found that, while voters put the economy, health care and immigration at the top of their priorities, they believe the Democratic Party’s priorities are abortion, LGBT issues, and climate change.
Vocally opposing a popular policy would be a reminder of the gap between voters and Democratic priorities, Republicans say.
“They are very upside down in the polling on this and I think they now realize how toxic their position is,” said state Rep. Ross Berry (R-Weare). “The voters are not with them and it appears they might be abandoning the issue, but I don’t know if they’ll be able to help themselves.”
State Sen. Timothy Lang (R-Sanbornton) said Granite Staters “overwhelmingly support protecting women’s sports for actual women.”
“Maybe New Hampshire Democrats learned their lesson after the trouncing they took at the ballot box in November, and are keeping quiet in the hope that no one remembers they stopped protecting women in their support of transgender females.”
State Sen. Daryl Abbas agreed and said he thinks the Democrats’ silence is “because they have been on the wrong side of this issue and now they all know it.”
“For the last few years, Democrats have overzealously advocated for biological boys to be allowed to play on the girls’ teams, which resulted in less opportunities for girls to play sports,” Abbas added. “I welcome any Democrat who changes their position and joins me in advocating to protect girls’ sports.”
Meanwhile, in deep-blue Massachusetts, one Democrat who made headlines after November’s election by criticizing his party’s emphasis on transgender issues was also tight-lipped regarding Trump’s order.
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton drew heated criticism from fellow Democrats when he suggested positions like allowing biological males to compete in girls’ sports contributed to his party’s November losses.
Gov. Maura Healey accused Moulton of “playing politics with people” and “picking on vulnerable children.”
In 2023, her office issued a press release praising former President Joe Biden’s proposed changes to Title IX, which she said “would bring federal regulations closer to existing Massachusetts laws that protect all students’ ability to participate in school athletics regardless of their gender identity.”
Healey has yet to comment on Trump’s order.
Her Repblican predecessor, former Gov. Charlie Baker, is now the president of the NCAA and was a staunch critic of Trump’s during his time on Beacon Hill. After the order, he issued a statement that appeared to convey a sense of relief.
“We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” Baker stated. “To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”
