Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump.
One of the most famous openly gay athletes in history tried to warn her campaign exactly why it was going to happen.
But the Harris campaign never called her back.
The Warning Democrats Refused to Hear
Martina Navratilova – 18 Grand Slam titles, publicly out since 1981, lifelong Democrat – reached out to the Harris campaign during the 2024 election.
She knew Republicans were hammering the trans athlete issue.
She knew it was working.
"I tried to get to Kamala Harris' campaign," Navratilova told OutKick. "Nobody would listen to me."
OutKick contacted Harris' office and a former senior communications official from her 2024 campaign seeking comment.
Neither responded.
https://twitter.com/PerryALPHA/status/1830778160901750837?s=20
That silence tells you everything.
The same campaign that ignored Navratilova's warning still can't respond to questions about ignoring it.
Democrat Politicians Know the Truth Privately
Here's the part that should make every Democrat furious.
Navratilova isn't talking about voters who don't understand the party line.
She's talking about elected officials – senators and members of Congress – who privately agree with her but won't say it out loud because they're terrified of being primaried.
"The politicians, I've spoken to some of them, Democrats, and they agree with me," Navratilova said. "But they said, 'If I say so publicly, I will get primaried. I will not get reelected.'"
This isn't a fringe concern shared only by conservatives.
A January 2025 New York Times/Ipsos survey found 67% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning respondents said biological males should not be allowed to compete in women's sports.
After the 2024 election, House Democrats Seth Moulton and Tom Suozzi both broke from the party line – Moulton saying he didn't want his daughters "getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete."
His reward was his own party moving to primary him.
https://twitter.com/ryan_nelso16107/status/2062186121959010317?s=20
The activists control the message.
The voters get ignored.
Young Staffers Are Running the Show
Navratilova identified exactly where the blockage is – and it's not even the politicians themselves.
"When we try to get a meeting with the Democratic senators and congresspeople, the staff won't let us through," Navratilova said. "They're young people, and they are the ones that control everybody. And they're the ones that are telling them what's what."
A staffer who spent four years on a college campus immersed in gender ideology is deciding which voices get to reach your elected representative.
That's who is setting Democratic policy on women's sports.
This Isn't Just About Sports
Just last week, trans athlete AB Hernandez won two California girls' state titles for the second straight year – high jump and triple jump – at the CIF State Track and Field Championships in Clovis on May 30, 2026.
Hernandez cleared 5 feet 10 inches in the high jump, beating the second-place finisher by two inches.
https://twitter.com/Hogshead3Au/status/2061868085305331954?s=20
The triple jump margin was nearly a foot and a half over the runner-up.
California's response was to change the scoring rules so more girls could share the podium – not to stop a biological male from taking titles that belong to female athletes.
"It starts at the high school level," Navratilova said. "It doesn't matter how many because one affects everybody around them."
She's right.
When a biological male wins the high jump, his team collects the points.
The girls on the opposing team lose them.
Every girl in the event gets bumped down a spot.
One athlete. Ripples everywhere.
Democrats Made Themselves a Target
Trump ran a 2024 ad featuring Harris' 2019 Democrat primary statement supporting gender-transition procedures for prisoners and detainees.
It closed with a simple message: "Kamala's agenda is they/them, not you."
Harris' own deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks called the ad "very effective" and said it made Harris "seem out of touch."
"Look how much Trump is bringing it up every chance he gets," Navratilova said. "They are going to keep using it."
She also identified the deepest wound.
"I have had so many people say to me, if they can't say what a woman is, how can I trust them on anything else?"
That's not a campaign problem.
That's a credibility collapse.
Democrat senators privately agree with Navratilova.
They know their own voters agree – 67% of Democrats said so.
And they still won't say it out loud because a staffer will end their career if they do.
That's not a party with principles.
That's a party being held hostage by its own staff.
AB Hernandez just won two more California girls' state titles.
Trump is going to put that on television.
He's going to run it in every swing district in 2026 and 2028.
And Democrat candidates will stand there the same way they did in 2024 – silent, because the activists won't let them speak.
Navratilova tried to stop it.
She reached out. She got nothing.
Now Republicans have a weapon Democrats handed them, and they're not giving it back.
Sources:
- OutKick Staff, "Martina Navratilova Says She Tried to Warn Kamala Harris' Campaign About Trans Athletes," OutKick, June 3, 2026.
- OutKick Staff, "AB Hernandez Closes High School Career With 2 California State Titles," OutKick, June 1, 2026.
- Washington Times Staff, "AB Hernandez, California Transgender Athlete, Wins Two Girls' State Titles," Washington Times, May 31, 2026.
- Fox News Staff, "Democrat Who Spoke Out Against Trans Athletes in Women's Sports Comes Under Attack From Own Party," Fox News, November 2024.
- Fox News Staff, "Democrats Holding 'Informal Conversations' on Trans Issues After Being 'Caught Flat-Footed' in 2024," Fox News, January 2025.
