A series of Republican-backed political advertisements are attempting to tie former U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democratic candidate in Ohio, to the personal struggles of a young woman who underwent a gender transition procedure.
In a promotional spot released on September 28 by the Senate Leadership Fund, a featured speaker states, “Sherrod Brown supports sex changes for minors. Irreversible surgery on kids. Like me.”
The speaker elaborates in the clip, sharing, “At 11, I was groomed by strangers online. At 15, a doctor told my family I was transgender. Hormone injections, then surgery, without my parents’ consent. I was a kid. I was confused. Sherrod Brown isn’t. He knows the consequences. Ohio’s kids deserve better. So did I.”
Another commercial from September 24 features the same individual describing years of emotional distress following her medical pathway, claiming, “I wasn’t born in the wrong body. I was a kid. But Sherrod Brown supports sex change surgery for minors and admitted he would never oppose it.”
The woman in the ads is Soren Aldaco, who has previously shared her journey of identifying as transgender during her youth and her subsequent decision to detransition.
While the advertisements imply a connection between Brown’s political stance on gender-affirming care and Aldaco’s background, available documentation indicates he had no involvement in her situation. Furthermore, Aldaco’s procedure occurred in Texas rather than Ohio, and she was 19 years old at the time—meaning she was legally an adult, not a minor.
The Senate Leadership Fund operates as a Republican super PAC dedicated to supporting incumbent candidate Jon Husted in the Senate race, with the capacity to deploy unlimited financial resources for campaign efforts.
Background on Aldaco’s Procedure in Texas
Legal records show that Aldaco filed a lawsuit in Tarrant County, Texas, in 2023 against several medical professionals and entities, citing allegations of medical negligence and other claims.
In an opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal in February, Aldaco detailed that she began identifying as transgender at age 11. She noted that when she was 17, her stepmother took her to a nurse practitioner who initiated a regimen of testosterone and estrogen blockers, followed by an elective double mastectomy when she turned 19.
Writing in a simultaneous Fox News op-ed, she recounted being targeted by older individuals in digital chatrooms during her youth.
In a statement provided to fact-checkers, Aldaco reiterated her timeline: “I was 11, freshly groomed, when I started identifying as trans — 15 when doctors got involved, 17 when they prescribed hormones without valid consent, and 19, still a teenager and a college kid, when I underwent a double mastectomy — and I’ll never get back the seven years of childhood that recent reporting has omitted.”
She also stated publicly that the practitioner who issued the initial hormone prescriptions did so without consulting her biological mother.
Brown’s Campaign Stance and Policy Context
In retaliation against the political messaging, Brown released a video statement dismissing the Senate Leadership Fund’s claims as entirely false.
His campaign ad points out, “Records show not only is this woman actually from Texas, she didn’t have any surgery as a minor.”
An earlier advertisement from Brown highlighted that state regulations in Ohio forbid the execution of transition-related surgeries on children.
Medical protocols do not endorse surgical transitions for young children, and such procedures for minors remain exceedingly rare.
Legislation restricting gender-affirming medical treatments for minors in Ohio took effect in April 2024, following a veto override by state lawmakers against Governor Mike DeWine’s initial rejection of the bill in late 2023.
Brown has rarely commented publicly on the specifics of youth gender-affirming care. Proponents of the campaign ads have referenced a 2023 media appearance where Brown remarked, “A child’s health care decisions are between them, their parents, their families, their doctors — not politicians. I will never agree with anybody that wants to bring politics into the family situation with health care, period.”
While those remarks did not endorse surgical procedures for minors, independent evaluations have categorized similar assertions from the Senate Leadership Fund regarding forced childhood surgeries as entirely false.
Local news coverage from October noted that Brown has largely characterized the matter as settled law in recent public appearances, maintaining a neutral stance on the underlying policy debate.
A representative for the Senate Leadership Fund argued that Brown’s past statements effectively signal opposition to any regulatory boundaries on transgender treatments for youth.
Evaluation
The Senate Leadership Fund commercials assert that Brown advocates for minors undergoing irreversible sex change operations, utilizing Aldaco’s personal narrative as evidence.
However, factual records demonstrate that Aldaco received her procedure as a 19-year-old adult in Texas, completely independent of Brown’s legislative actions or authority.
Given that Ohio explicitly bars such procedures for minors—and that no documentation exists showing Brown has ever endorsed minor transitions—the central premise of the advertisements lacks any factual basis.
Consequently, the claim has been rated entirely false and misleading.
Research for this overview was supported by Caryn Baird.