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Gavin Newsom's provocative new stance on trans athletes on Thursday intensified the rift in the Democratic Party that could be one of the first contentious points during the 2028 party primary.

Within hours of the California governor condemning the play of trans athletes in women's competitions — shocking his party in his home state — some Democrats slammed the likely presidential hopeful.

“It’s disgusting,” said Lori Lightfoot, the former mayor of Chicago. “Today in California, kids are waking up to this news thinking their governor hates them, and he’s right.” Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal urged Democrats not to “take the bait and fall into their rhetoric against trans people,” although she hadn’t yet heard Newsom’s comments.

Organizations representing LGBTQ+ rights immediately understood that they were looking at the trans athlete issue as a litmus test for ambitious Democrats. “Our message to Governor Newsom and leaders across the country is simple: the road to 2028 isn’t paved by betraying vulnerable communities — it’s built on the courage to stand up for what’s right and doing the hard work of actually helping the American people,” said Kelly Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign.

But for moderates, Newsom offered a chance to survive in a party ravaged by culture wars and polarizing politics surrounding trans women in sports. His comments were the latest in a series of possible candidates attempting to distance themselves from identity politics in 2024. In recent weeks, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg criticized some approaches to advancing diversity, seeing them as responsible for how “Trumpist Republicans” are formed, while Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker cited an impending budget deficit to propose cutting health benefits for some undocumented immigrants.

“The stark reality is that poll after poll has shown that most of the country (and Democrats!) agree with this idea,” said a county captain (Democrats!), noting that significant conversation around trans people partially bears blame for the party's electoral defeats last year. “More and more people are willing to articulate what they have likely always thought — and that’s a good thing.”

“We’re just stepping beyond the bounds and allowing left-wing radicals to define the narrative,” said a Democratic strategist from the swing state, who was granted anonymity to speak freely. “Our voters don’t agree with trans athletes competing in kids’ or college-level sports.”

The strategist said, “Having the governor of one of the largest states saying this, indicating that our party has gone too far left, then it’s permission structure for other Democrats to start publicly saying what people are saying privately.”

Still, Newsom was treading controversial grounds — and potentially alienating entire activist groups ahead of 2028. In the hours after he spoke in a conversation with conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Newsom’s new podcast that “it’s profoundly unfair” for trans athletes to compete on women’s teams, no other Democrat with presidential ambitions for 2028 was willing to publicly support him.

Trans rights have become a thorny issue for Democrats after Trump weaponized the matter during his 2024 campaign, unleashing millions in attacks against Kamala Harris, including one with the tagline, “For They/Them. President Trump is watching you.” As a result, many moderates argued that the Democratic Party has gone too far in identity politics and ideological tests.

In the same interview with Kirk, Newsom said he considered those ads highlighting Harris’s support for covering gender transition-related medical expenses for incarcerated immigrants and federal prisoners the most effective political hit against the former vice president.

Some Republicans mock Newsom as “craven” for breaking ranks with most other Democrats. Trump envoy Richard Grenell said the California governor should be viewed as someone who “changed his position on trans athletes after looking at the polls.”

Recent polls support the positioning on this issue. Though a majority of adult Americans support policies protecting trans people from discrimination, 66% of those surveyed prefer requiring trans athletes to compete on teams that align with their sex at birth, while 56% support prohibiting top healthcare providers from offering gender transition-related services to minors, according to Pew Research.

In the Capitol, most Democrats said they had not read Newsom’s comments directly, but greeted his probe with a smile and look of ambiguity when he conducted the interview with Kirk in his podcast. They refrained from direct critique of the governor, even if they disagreed with his remarks.

“I just saw the headline. I haven’t read it, but I know where I stand,” said Representative Latifa Simon (D-CA). “We’re not concerned about our young people; we have to engage them; we don’t want to exclude them.”

Democrats virtually unanimously voted against legislation that would exclude trans athletes from competing in women’s teams or girls’ teams. Though some lawmakers, speaking before the vote, like Moulton, mostly expressed their opposition to allowing trans athletes into girls’ teams, they ultimately decided to vote against the legislation, saying it was overly broad.

“The injustice is in denying transgender children opportunities and the politics that leave them sidelined for political expediency,” said Representative Sara Jacobs (D-CA), vice-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.

Asked about Newsom’s comments, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he had not seen them but remarked that Democrats were against “letting sexual predators into girls’ sports across the United States.” Democratic leaders called the bill concerning sports competitions for transgender people “the Child Predator Stimulus Act” and argued it would lead to adults inspecting children’s bodies to determine their eligibility for sports.

In California, Democratic lawmakers in Sacramento characterized Newsom’s words as vomiting between their phones, followed by an illegal nuisance governor who built his national political profile by endorsing same-sex marriages, positioning himself against right-wing crusaders for transgender rights. As San Francisco’s mayor, Newsom joked about federal and state law, issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples.