No, Jon Tester did not vote to have men compete against girls in sports

In a variety of competitive races this election cycle, Republican groups have done just that appealed to voters who are uncomfortable with transgender participation in sports, hoping to undermine support for Democratic candidates.

One of those races is the Senate contest in Montana, pitting Democratic Senator Jon Tester against Republican Tim Sheehy.

In September, the Senate Leadership Fund – a political action committee that supports Senate Republicans – launched one advertisement who said, “Jon Tester ignored parents who don’t want biological males to compete in girls’ sports. Tester voted to allow males to compete against our girls in their sports. Those are not Montana values.”

This claim is essentially identical to the claims we checked in US Senate races Ohio And Nevada. In both cases, we rated the claim as False.

The amendments Tester voted on would have stripped federal funding from schools and colleges that would allow transgender girls and women to compete in sports consistent with their gender identity. They did not dictate their eligibility for athletics. Federal law rarely dictates who is eligible for specific sports.

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“As a former public school teacher and school board member, Jon Tester believes these decisions should be made at the local level,” the Tester campaign said in a statement to PolitiFact. “He never voted for pitting men against women.”

The attack ad mentioned Tester’s votes cast March 6, 2021And March 22, 2024against amendments to two broad spending bills. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., sought to add both amendments, one to the 2021 American Rescue Plan and the other to a 2024 bill to fund multiple federal departments.

The amendments would have ruled out federal funds may not be spent on a “state, local educational agency, or institution of higher learning” if they permit “any student whose biological sex (recognized solely on the basis of an individual’s reproductive biology at birth) is male to participate in a athletic program or activity intended for girls or women.”

The Senate Leadership Fund did not respond to PolitiFact for this article.

But when we investigated the claim from the group’s Ohio ad, Torunn Sinclair, communications director for the Senate Leadership Fund, defended the ad’s wording, saying the amendments tied school funding to whether or not transgender women could participate participate in sports that match their gender identity.

“You’re funding something, which is a vote to make something happen,” Sinclair said.

But the federal government does not regulate eligibility for sports. A vote for or against these amendments would therefore have had no influence on the suitability of the team.

American high school sports are decentralized; each state typically makes its own rules about who can participate. Twenty-six states have laws or regulations that prohibit transgender athletes from participating in sports that match their gender identity. according to the Movement Advancement Projecta think tank focused on LGBTQ+ rights and voting rights.

Montana does one state that prohibits the practice.

Federal law covers compensation, amateur status, antitrust or other civil issues, but not who can or cannot participate.

Governing bodies, such as the National Collegiate Athletic Associationdetermine who may participate in specific competitions.

Some federal laws, such as Title IX, prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex for programs that receive federal funding, including almost all public schools. This was reported by the American Government Accountability Office. President Joe Biden new rules revealed in April that address gender identity under Title IX, although the rules did not specifically address transgender athletes in sports.

Forcing votes in this way is a common legislative tactic for both parties.

As we noted in another fact check Facing a different Tester vote, both Democratic and Republican senators have introduced amendments structured to force members of the other party to support or oppose policies that could be controversial to voters. Senators in the majority, like Tester on both votes, must wade through these amendments to get the larger bill passed. Sometimes this means voting for something that could be used by a future opponent. Otherwise, a bill that has already passed the House of Representatives would have to be sent back to the House to resolve the disagreements, which is impractical given the funding timelines.

Our statement

The Senate Leadership Fund said Tester “voted to allow men to compete against our girls in their sports.”

Tester voted against two amendments to broader spending bills that would have stripped funding from schools that allowed transgender athletes to compete in sports that match their gender identity.

However, these changes did not determine eligibility for athletics. Additionally, Montana is one of 26 states that ban transgender athletes from participating in sports that match their gender identity.

We rate the claim as false.