An attack ad campaign targeting U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown features a woman who claims Brown supports "sex changes for minors" and "irreversible surgery on kids like me," but records show she is not an Ohio resident and received her surgery as an adult. The Senate Leadership Fund, a group supporting Republicans, produced multiple ads accusing Brown of "forcing childhood sex change surgery."
The ads prominently feature social media influencer Soren Aldaco, who states she was "misled." Aldaco says that after a brief meeting, doctors told her parents she was transgender, leading to hormone shots, a "botched double mastectomy," and "years of trauma." In another ad, Aldaco claims she was groomed online at age 11, told she was transgender at 15, and had "Surgery without my parents’ consent. I was a kid."
However, public records and legal documentation contradict these assertions regarding her age and residency. Aldaco reportedly received her surgery without parental consent because she was 19, an adult. These records indicate she lived and received her treatments in Texas, not Ohio. Details from a Texas Supreme Court battle involving her attorneys confirm that her double mastectomy occurred once she was an adult.
Dr. Anita Somani, a Columbus-area Democrat and OB-GYN, clarified that performing gender-affirming care procedures on minors is illegal in Ohio. Somani stated, "Under 18, there is not a single surgery that’s been done here in the state, so I think the ads are misleading. They are lies." This Ohio law directly contrasts with the ad's implications.
The ad campaign appears to stem from a 2023 statement by Sherrod Brown, in which he expressed his belief that medical decisions should be made between families and their doctors, rather than by politicians. Interestingly, "multiple individuals in the ad" themselves acknowledge that "In Ohio, it’s against the law to perform transgender surgeries on kids. That’s right, it’s illegal."
During Ohio’s debate over a law to prohibit transgender medical procedures for minors, Dr. Somani observed that de-transitioners, including individuals like Aldaco, were from out-of-state. Somani reiterated that assertions of having surgery or being "forced into surgery as a minor is clearly inaccurate," noting the individual "Did not live in Ohio, had no connections to Ohio."
Republican strategist Bob Clegg defended the ad’s relevance, stating that Aldaco’s residence "doesn’t matter." Clegg explained that Aldaco is speaking about how she "should have never been allowed to have that kind of medical intervention," and that she opposes politicians who believe such interventions are "perfectly okay." When confronted with the fact that Aldaco was a legal adult during her surgery, Clegg responded by questioning "how many mature 19-year-olds have you met?"
Clegg also pointed out that the GOP-controlled state supreme court is currently reviewing Ohio's gender-affirming care ban, meaning it "isn’t completely settled law." He asserted that voters need to understand that Brown "doesn’t support the law," adding, "We’re only under a temporary prohibition."
Conversely, Dr. Somani suggested that the Republican focus on "culture war topics" distracts from more pressing affordability concerns. She described such campaigns as "a way to create an issue that’s a non-issue."
