Democrats Swept Congress. Even Blue Washington and Colorado Backed Keeping Boys Out of Girls’ Sports

Tuesday was a rout for Republicans. Democrats took the House and the Senate and flipped governor’s mansions from Texas to Ohio. But on one question, voters in four states went the other way, and two of those states are as blue as they come.

Every girls’ sports measure on the ballot is passing. Nebraska’s Initiative 442 has 68% of the vote, and Arizona’s Proposition 318 has 58.9%. The Associated Press has called both. In Washington, Initiative 638 leads 56.8% to 43.2% in the secretary of state’s count. In Colorado, Proposition 134 leads 52.2% to 47.8% with roughly three-quarters of the vote counted. Neither of those two has been called yet.

“In a deep blue state, with a deep blue election wave, the voters said: Protect girls’ sports,” Jennifer Sey, the former national gymnastics champion who helped lead Colorado’s campaign, told Chalkbeat. The measure was “never a partisan issue,” she said. “Basic truth and biological reality don’t have a party.”

Washington: the tell is on the same ballot

Look at what else Washington voters did Tuesday. Let’s Go Washington, the group founded by Seattle hedge fund manager Brian Heywood, put three measures on the ballot. Its repeal of the state’s new income tax on high earners is losing 58.1% to 41.9%. Its expansion of the parents’ bill of rights is losing 52.7% to 47.3%. Its girls’ sports measure is winning by more than 266,000 votes.

Same voters, same night, same backers. The difference is the issue. The measure was winning in more than 30 counties, including Pierce, Snohomish and Spokane, the Seattle Times reported. Only King, Jefferson and San Juan counties were voting no.

Heywood got the first good news before Washington posted a single number. He told his election night party that in Colorado, Nebraska and Arizona, girls’ sports was winning “at about a 55% to 62% range.” Then he made a prediction: “I think we’re going to do the same thing here in Washington State.”

Washington counts mail ballots for days, so the margin will move. The Seattle Times ran the numbers and found the no side would need about 60% of the remaining ballots to catch up. It has 43% so far.

Colorado: outspent and still ahead

Colorado’s race is the closest, and it’s where the yes side was most outgunned. Protect Kids Colorado, the group behind it, said it was outspent “22 to 1 ($4.4M vs. $200K)” in an 𝕏 post late Tuesday night. Its two companion measures were winning too: Proposition 133, tougher penalties for sex trafficking of minors, by more than 420,000 votes, and Proposition 135, a ban on sex-change surgery for minors, by about three points.

Proposition 134 covers every public and private K-12 school and every college in the state. Each team gets labeled male, female or coed, and girls’ teams are closed to males. Girls can still join a boys’ team when there’s no girls’ team. It takes effect Jan. 1.

The other side isn’t conceding. Nadine Bridges of One Colorado, the LGBTQ group that fought the measure, told Chalkbeat she would wait for the rest of the ballots, and that if it passes, opponents will look hard for a legal way around it.

Arizona and Nebraska: red states locked it in

Arizona and Nebraska already kept males off girls’ teams. Their voters made the rules tougher. Arizona’s Proposition 318, which the Republican Legislature sent straight to voters so Gov. Katie Hobbs couldn’t veto it, extends the rule to private schools and athletic associations, defines sex by the original birth certificate and keeps locker rooms and showers separate. Even Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, voted yes.

Nebraska’s Initiative 442 writes the state’s 2025 Stand With Women Act into the constitution, where a future Legislature can’t quietly repeal it. “No girl in Nebraska should ever be forced to compete against or share a locker room with a boy,” the Nebraska Family Alliance said in a statement after the measure passed. “This is a victory for fairness, truth, and common sense.”

What happens next

How long each win lasts depends on the type of measure. Nebraska’s is now part of the state constitution. Washington’s constitution bars the Legislature from amending or repealing a voter-approved initiative for two years unless two-thirds of both chambers agree, and it takes effect 30 days after the election. Colorado’s is an ordinary statute, so the Democratic Legislature could rewrite it with a simple majority, the Colorado Sun noted. Expect lawsuits in Washington and Colorado either way. Legal experts told the Seattle Times a challenge to Initiative 638 is likely.

Nearly 20 years ago, Washington became the first state to let transgender students play on teams that match their gender identity. On a night Democrats won nearly everything else, Washington’s own voters moved to end it.