POLICY WIRE FACT CHECK: Senate Leadership Fund Ads Misleadingly Link Sherrod Brown to Texas Detransitioner’s Medical History
The Claim A series of political advertisements funded by the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC supporting incumbent U.S. Senator Jon Husted, has leveled serious allegations against Democratic U.S....
The Claim
A series of political advertisements funded by the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC supporting incumbent U.S. Senator Jon Husted, has leveled serious allegations against Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown. The ads feature Soren Aldaco, a Texas woman who has publicly shared her experience of undergoing gender transition-related surgery and subsequently detransitioning. In the spots, Aldaco claims, “Sherrod Brown supports sex changes for minors. Irreversible surgery on kids. Like me.”
These advertisements, which began circulating in late September 2026, explicitly attempt to frame Brown’s legislative record and public statements as a direct endorsement of performing irreversible gender-affirming surgeries on children. The narrative suggests a causal link between Brown’s political stance and the personal medical trauma described by Aldaco, implying that his policies would facilitate similar outcomes for minors in Ohio.
The Details & Investigation
Our investigation into these claims reveals a pattern of deliberate disinformation designed to manipulate voter perception through the conflation of unrelated events. The primary evidence confirms that Soren Aldaco’s medical procedures occurred in Texas, not Ohio, and were performed when she was 19 years old—legally an adult. Consequently, the assertion that Brown’s policies enabled or supported “surgery on kids” in this context is factually baseless. The Senate Leadership Fund’s attempt to bridge the gap between a Texas medical case and Ohio policy constitutes a coordinated effort to deceive the electorate.
Furthermore, the claim that Brown supports “sex changes for minors” is unsupported by his legislative record or public statements. The Senate Leadership Fund cites a 2023 interview in which Brown stated that healthcare decisions should remain between families and doctors, free from political interference. This statement, which emphasizes parental and medical autonomy, has been aggressively recontextualized by the PAC to imply an endorsement of pediatric surgical intervention. There is no evidence that Brown has ever advocated for, or supported, the performance of gender-affirming surgeries on minors.
The investigation also highlights the legal and regulatory reality in Ohio. As of April 2024, Ohio law explicitly prohibits gender-affirming medical care for minors, following a legislative override of Governor Mike DeWine’s veto. By ignoring this established legal framework, the advertisements rely on the omission of critical context to sustain a false narrative. We categorize this as disinformation, as the Senate Leadership Fund has continued to disseminate these claims despite clear evidence that the events described by Aldaco fall outside the scope of Brown’s influence and the legal reality of Ohio’s current statutes.
The Verdict
The claim that Sherrod Brown supports sex-change surgeries for minors is FALSE. The advertisements produced by the Senate Leadership Fund utilize a misleading narrative that conflates a Texas-based medical case involving an adult with Ohio’s legislative landscape. By misrepresenting Brown’s 2023 comments and ignoring the current legal prohibition of such procedures in Ohio, the campaign has engaged in a deliberate effort to misinform voters.
Because the advertisements knowingly distort the timeline, location, and nature of the medical procedures described, and falsely attribute a policy position to the candidate that he does not hold, this campaign is rated as a clear instance of political disinformation.
Counter-misinformation & disinformation investigation conducted by PolicyWire Editorial Desk (PW).
