Joy-Ann Reid Says Anti-Trans School Ads Are 'Not Persuading Anyone'

Joy-Ann Reid said on Friday that Republican ads claiming schools perform gender-transition surgeries on children are not needed for the party's base and are not persuading anyone.

Reid, the former MSNBC host, made the argument on a late live episode of The Joy Reid Show after an eight-state, four-day tour of the South. She said nearly every Democrat she met on the trip was facing the ads, with Election Day on Tuesday.

"And it's not a persuasion issue at all 'cause it's not persuading anyone," Reid said. "'Cause most people who see these ads are thinking, what does that have to do with the price of gas?"

Joy-Ann Reid on Republican Transgender Ads

Reid said the ads speak only to voters Republicans already have, calling them "not needed for the people that are in the Republican base." If the issue is what a voter cares about "more than anything else," she said, "they're already gonna vote Republican 'cause they're already a conservative."

She played Donald Trump's version of the claim, in which a child "leaves home and comes back Sarah."

The claim does not hold up. PolitiFact rated Trump's assertion that schools perform transition surgeries "Pants on Fire." A CNN fact-check found no evidence that schools have arranged such surgeries or performed them on site. It also noted that major medical guidelines require a parent or guardian to consent before a minor receives gender-affirming care.

"There's not enough money and not enough healthcare available to do trans surgeries at schools, even if that was a thing, it's not a thing," Reid said.

What Polling Shows on Transition Care for Minors

The underlying policy question is a different matter. A Pew Research Center survey of 5,097 adults, conducted February 10–17, 2025, found that 56 percent of Americans favor banning health care professionals from providing gender-transition care to minors. That was up 10 points from 2022.

Support for a ban rose in both parties over that period. It went from 72 percent to 79 percent among Republicans and from 26 percent to 35 percent among Democrats, according to Pew.

The survey measured opinion on the policy, not whether the ads persuade voters or move votes, so it is a separate question from the one Reid raised. Whether the ads move votes this close to an election, against voters' worries about prices, is what her argument turns on.

On the economy, her side of the argument has more support. Trump's approval on the economy stands at 29.6 percent, with 67.5 percent disapproving, in PolitiKool's polling average. Gas averages $4.27 a gallon nationally.

Raquel Willis Faults Democrats' Response

Reid's guest, Raquel Willis, executive director and co-founder of the Gender Liberation Movement, put part of the blame on Democrats.

"I think Democrats have overwhelmingly fed into this inaccurate frame from the Republicans, and there hasn't been enough fact-checking in real time," Willis said. Denials focused on taxpayer-funded surgery, she said, also send the message "okay, well, gender-affirming care doesn't matter."

Willis said Democrats should have talked more this cycle about how the budget law's Medicaid cuts affected care. After the interview ended, Reid made her own case on Medicaid. She said the law "stole $800 billion out of Medicaid," and that states like Kentucky that expanded the program "are now losing access."

The Congressional Budget Office's estimate is higher than Reid's figure: it projected the law would reduce federal Medicaid spending by $911 billion over 10 years.

What to Watch on Tuesday

The results on Tuesday will not settle which side read voters correctly. But if Democrats who answered with gas prices and Medicaid hold their own in the South, Reid will have a case. If Republicans gain in the races where these ads ran most heavily, so will they.