Under fire from her party’s progressive base and on the wrong side of high-profile political policies, retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) is firing back, declaring male competitors in girls sports “unfair” and accusing progressive Democrats of political incompetence.
In a wide-ranging interview that aired on WMUR Sunday, Shaheen, 78, was asked by WMUR’s Adam Sexton, “Is it fair when a formerly male athlete wins a girls’ sports championship?”
“That’s not fair,” Shaheen replied.
However, Shaheen stood by her participation in a filibuster to block the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” earlier this month.
“(Democrats) believe states can decide how to deal with sports on their own. They don’t need the federal government interfering,” Shaheen said.
Shaheen’s acknowledgment that so-called “transgender” (aka, biological males) athletes competing in women’s sports is unfair to female athletes echoes recent statements from likely 2028 presidential candidate Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), who made national headlines when he called it “deeply unfair” on his podcast.
Democratic strategist James Carville predicts more Democrats will join Newsom and Shaheen on this issue.
“Newsom said it. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said it. I suspect you’re going to have more come out with it,” Carville recently told Fox News.
Polls show a majority of Granite Staters support protecting girls sports from biological males, as do nearly 80 percent of all Americans — including 67 percent of Democrats — in a recent New York Times poll.
The base of the party, however, doesn’t appear to be interested in moving to the center. Angry activists are turning out for town halls hosted by Democrats like Rep. Maggie Goodlander to express their outrage over what they see as their party capitulating to President Donald Trump.
Shaheen has been one of their targets, in particular over her vote to help pass a Republican continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded. Both Shaheen and Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) voted to end the filibuster and allow the resolution to come to the Senate floor. Shaheen and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) were the only non-Republicans to vote to pass the actual spending bill.
Some Granite State Democrats are outraged.
“We’re not going to win every fight, but we’ve got to get up every time and keep on swinging,” Frank Arsenault of Seabrook told Goodlander’s town hall. “The one chance they get to vote on the CR (continuing resolution), what happens? We live in New Hampshire. I was so embarrassed that our two senators couldn’t stand up.”
In a letter to The Keene Sentinel, Gene Faltus of Swanzey wrote, “Both our U.S. senators, Shaheen and Hassan, have disgraced themselves and the state in joining Sen. Schumer and the minority of Democratic senators in voting for the Republican budget.”
On WMUR, Shaheen defended her decision to back the Republican resolution as smart politics.
“If you didn’t like the continuing resolution, you for sure wouldn’t like a government shutdown, because everything that’s in that continuing resolution could be done in a government shutdown and a lot worse,” Shaheen said. “I don’t think we want to give Donald Trump, who has the biggest megaphone in the country, the ability to say to the rest of the country, ‘We are in this economic mess because of what the Democrats did to shut down the government.'”
As for the frustration among Granite State Democrats, Shaheen added, “I’m as frustrated as anybody. But you have to think about how to best address the concerns and not just cut off your nose to spite your face.”
Both Goodlander and Rep. Chris Pappas voted against passing the continuing resolution, as well as the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.” Asked if they agree with Shaheen’s statements about the CR strategy or the unfairness of biological male competitors in women’s sports, both Democrats declined to respond.
