So - like the changing of the seasons, primaries are the time for defeating the democrat that needs to get right. That is the election this map should have been for.

As a trans person, I have far more to fear from an anti-trans Democrat than I do from a Republican. This is one area where the needs of the trans community simply differ from the needs of the broader left. If an anti-trans Democrat is running against a Republican, I'll simply not vote in that election. I would rather see a Republican win than an anti-trans Democrat.

I know this makes cis leftists and liberals scream, but this is one area where a minority group knows how to look after its own interests better than the majority does. It's not the place of cis people to tell trans people how to fight for their interests. Honestly, I don't think any cis person has any business at all telling a trans person how to vote. The optimal strategy for the left cis population is not the same as the optimal strategy for the trans population. And no cis person should presume they know the needs of the trans community better than the trans community. We're fundamentally not all in this together, as the stream of anti-trans democrats and other fair-weather allies so vividly demonstrate.

Trans people don't have the luxury of only looking one election ahead. This is something that affects our entire lives, for the rest of our lives. A Republican winning an election threatens our rights for the next 2-6 years. An anti-trans Democrat threatens our rights for the rest of our lives. If the Democratic party turns anti-trans, and that becomes the norm on both sides? We're fucked for a generation. And when people see both sides agreeing on something? It becomes common sense and the assumed default. Suddenly advocating for trans rights will be as popular as advocating for the rights of pedophiles. All the liberal cis people telling trans people how to vote today will move with the herd and decide that trans people are the devil. When both parties turn anti-trans, you yourself will move with the herd and be saying things like, "of course it's just common sense that we should be regulating bathroom use. It's about women's rights and safety!" You'll find ways to convince yourself you're still progressive, justifying the most extreme forms of persecution from a liberal or leftist lens. If the Soviet Union could find a way to politically justify queer persecution, you'll have no problem.

Ultimately, the only real power small minority groups ever have is as a political spoiler. Look at the Cubans in Florida. A tiny minority of the US population was able to wield influence for decades well beyond their actual numbers, simply by acting as a credible threat to any candidate of either party that dared threaten their interests. And if your only lever of power is as a spoiler, you have to be willing to actually use that. "Blue no matter who" is not a strategy that's compatible with the interests of the trans community. Your interests are not our interests. Do not assume they always align. On most things we do align, but on some we do not.

Close elections are precisely those where trans people need to be most willing to act as a spoiler to advance our interests. It's literally the only way we have of having any real impact at the ballot box. Trans people simply do not have the numbers to force through candidates on our own. We do have the numbers however to make it so any anti-trans Democrat is guaranteed to lose an otherwise close election. This is our one real lever of political power, and we shouldn't give it up simply because it makes cis liberals uncomfortable.

I imagine this will make most cis people quite uncomfortable. But I'm comfortable with your discomfort. There's nothing liberals find more uncomfortable than minorities wielding power independently instead of waiting for the enlightened liberals to sweep in and save them. Minority groups are supposed to be vulnerable victims desperately seeking protection, not independent human beings fully capable of acting in their own interests. Minorities taking matters into their own hands make liberals squirm.

But sure, continue to advocate that small minorities abandon their one real lever of power.