No, Jon Tester did not vote to allow men to compete in sports with girls

Groups affiliated with the Republican Party are competing in various competitive races this election cycle appealed to voters who are uncomfortable with transgender participation in sports, hoping to reduce support for Democratic candidates.

One such race is the Montana Senate race, in which Democratic Sen. Jon Tester will face Republican Tim Sheehy.

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

This claim is essentially identical to the one we examined in the U.S. Senate races Ohio AND Nevada. In both cases, we found the claim to be false.

The amendments Tester voted on would deprive schools and colleges of federal funding that would allow transgender girls and women to compete in sports that correspond with their gender identity. They did not impose sports privileges. Federal law rarely specifies who can play certain sports.

Sign up for PolitiFact text messages

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

The attack ad quoted the tester’s votes March 6, 2021AND March 22, 2024against amendments to two broad spending bills. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, D-Alabama, sought to attach both amendments, one to the 2021 American Rescue Plan and the other to a 2024 bill funding multiple federal departments.

Amendments would have prohibited spending federal funds on a “state, local educational agency, or institution of higher education” if they allow “any student whose biological sex (identified solely by an individual’s reproductive biology at birth) is male to participate in an athletic program or activity intended for for girls and women.”

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

But when we checked the claim in the group’s ad in Ohio, Senate Leadership Fund communications director Torunn Sinclair defended the ad’s wording, saying the amendments tie school funding to whether transgender women can play sports that correspond with their gender identity.

“You’re funding something that’s a vote to let something happen,” Sinclair said.

But the federal government does not regulate eligibility for sports. Therefore, voting for or against these amendments would also have no impact on the team’s eligibility.

High school sports in the US are decentralized; each state typically sets its own rules about who can participate. Twenty-six states have laws or regulations prohibiting transgender athletes from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. in accordance with the Traffic Development Projecta team of advisors focused on LGBTQ+ rights and voting access.

Montana is one state which prohibits this practice.

Federal law regulates wages, amateur status, antitrust and other civil matters, but does not address who can and cannot participate.

governing bodies, such as the National Collegiate Athletic Associationdetermine who can participate in certain competitions.

Some federal laws, such as Title IX, prohibit sex discrimination in programs receiving federal funds, which includes almost all public schools, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. President Joe Biden revealed new rules in April that cover gender identity under Title IX, although the legislation did not specifically address transgender athletes participating in sports.

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

As we saw in another fact check involving Tester’s different vote, both Democratic and Republican senators introduced amendments intended to force members of the other party to support or oppose policies that could be controversial to voters. A majority of senators, like Tester on both votes, must wade through these amendments to get the broader bill passed. Sometimes that means voting for something that a future opponent can exploit. Otherwise, a bill already passed by the House would have to be sent back to the House to resolve differences, which would be an impractical solution given funding deadlines.

Our ruling

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

Tester voted against two broader spending bill amendments that would have deprived schools of funds to allow transgender athletes to compete in sports that correspond with their gender identity.

However, these changes did not determine sports eligibility. Additionally, Montana is one of 26 states where transgender athletes cannot play sports consistent with their gender identity.

We rate the claim as false.