This blog is originally appeared at LGBTQ Nation

Ted Cruz exploited the images of two minors without their parents’ consent, misrepresenting them as “boys in girls’ sports.” This misleading tactic serves his narrative while disregarding basic respect for privacy and accuracy.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s relentless pursuit of transgender targets in a series of hateful attack ads aimed at his Democratic opponent, Colin Allred, has backfired. Cruz has landed in controversy after using the images of two cisgender teenage girls without their parents’ permission. The girls appear in at least two fear-mongering ads that attack both the trans community and Allred, where they are pictured alongside former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and CeCé Telfer, a Jamaican-born sprinter and the first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA title. The use of their likenesses has sparked outrage from the girls’ parents and their high school.

In one of the ads, a photo of the two teens at an Oregon high school track and field event is shown, while a narrator ominously declares, “Boys in girls’ sports.” This misleading and inflammatory statement further fuels the attack on transgender athletes, misrepresenting the two girls and distorting the issue.

A representative from the Beaverton School District has demanded that the ads be removed “from any and all distribution platforms,” following an email sent to the Cruz campaign and shared with The Hill. The district’s representative emphasized that the two athletes pictured are minors and made clear that neither the family, the school, nor the district had given permission for the photo to be used.

“It is alarming that your campaign would have produced, distributed, or promoted this ad with false information, especially with minor children involved,” the representative wrote.

The photo originally appeared in an April report by Central Oregon Daily News, which covered a controversy involving a transgender high school athlete in the state. In response, a Cruz campaign spokesperson claimed the image depicted “a female athlete who spoke out against boys playing in girls’ sports after participating in a track meet where a biological male beat female athletes and impacted individual and team medal results.” However, the spokesperson did not address the misleading labeling of the two young women as “trans boys.”

Despite the campaign’s focus on anti-trans rhetoric, Cruz and his fellow MAGA Republicans continue to push this divisive messaging, even as they ignore voters’ top priorities, such as the economy and healthcare. This strategy echoes the failure of 2022, when the GOP’s massive ad campaign centered on similar anti-trans tropes and failed to produce the expected “red wave” in the midterm elections.

Democratic nominee Colin Allred, who is locked in a tight race with Cruz, has condemned the senator’s anti-trans attack ads as a “disgusting, false attack,” accusing Cruz of trying to “divide Texans.” Josh Stewart, a spokesperson for Allred, added, “Cruz will say anything to distract from his dangerous abortion ban that is putting women’s lives at risk, his efforts to raise the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare, and his shameful escape to Cancun during a deadly winter storm.”