BEAVERTON, Ore. — The Beaverton School District has sent a letter asking Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz's campaign to remove an attack ad against his Democratic opponent House Representative Colin Allred on transgender athletes that features two Oregon high school students.
The photo seen in the ad falsely implies that at least one of the students may be transgender, when neither is, the district said. The photo was also used without permission, the district said.
The photo appears to be taken from a Bend, Oregon news station's story in April about a transgender teen running in the Oregon High School state track meet. The news station spoke with one of the girls seen in the photo, who ran track for a Bend-La Pine School District high school, about her reaction to a transgender student participating in the track meet. The student has since left the district.
The girl in the photo next to her is seen wearing a Westview High School sweatshirt, part of the Beaverton School District. That student was not interviewed for the story and only is seen in that image.
In the ad for the Texas Senate race, the image is edited next to a photo of Colin Allred, with a caption that says "Colin Allred voted to allow boys in girls sports."
The ad doesn't make mention of the news story, nor the context in which the photo was used in the story.
The Beaverton School District sent a letter to the Ted Cruz campaign asking it pull the ad from all distribution platforms immediately.
"The two athletes pictured are minors; the one on the left in the Westview hoodie is our student. The family nor the school or school district ever gave permission for this photo to be used," the letter said. "In addition, the ad implies that at least one of the athletes in this photo is transgender. Please know that both of these athletes were born female and identify as female; they are not transgendered."
The district also criticized the campaign for promoting the ad with false information, "especially with minor children involved."
The Beaverton School District said it was first made aware of the ad when The Hill, a national political publication, contacted the district.
KGW News reached out to the Cruz campaign for comment. Darin Miller, a spokesperson for the campaign said in response: "The picture features 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."
"This is exactly what Colin Allred wants and has voted to support over and over again. He's as extreme as they come," Miller said.
When pressed further about using the photo without context and showing a photo of minors in an attack ad, there was no response.
Basic Rights Oregon, an organization that works to ensure all LGBTQ2SIA+ Oregonians live free from discrimination and be treated with dignity and respect, said “Oregonians may have differing opinions on some things, but we can all agree that our kids deserve safety and respect. Unfortunately, we’ve seen extremists here in Oregon single out minors and put them in harm’s way for political gain. Now, that is happening on a national stage."
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden said he's also urging his senate colleague to take down the ad he described as "dishonest and deceitful" and apologize to the two students.
"If stigmatizing already vulnerable teen-agers with cruel and divisive words wasn’t bad enough, this crude attack ad blatantly misuses video and photos to exploit two young women from Oregon in a heartless appeal to extremists’ worst instincts in Texas,” Wyden said.
The ad was published to Cruz's YouTube page a month ago and has more than 6,000 views. Cruz's campaign spokesperson said the ad has not been on TV in a week.