Hoosier State Today

Former Newsman host, Fox News contributor and Trump campaigner Steve Cortes is slamming Gov. Eric Holcomb about legislation related to girls' sports. 

"With his shameful veto, Indiana’s weak, establishment Governor Eric Holcomb proved, once again, that he is a fake conservative and a supplicant to big business, rather than a servant to the citizens of his state," Cortes said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. "He stopped a bill that easily passed the Indiana legislature which protects girls’ sports and upholds heartland values."

"Unfortunately, Governor Holcomb himself will not face voters this Fall, but his allies will," he added. "One such crony is his hand-picked, appointed Secretary of State Holli Sullivan. She belongs to the Holcomb slate and shares responsibility for his string of betrayals, from this veto to his aggressive courting of Afghan refugees for Indiana. Holcomb leads an establishment faction that includes Holli Sullivan and fails Indiana repeatedly.

The legislation Holcomb struck down would have disallowed transgender girls who were born boys to compete in girls' sports. He noted the veto in a March 21 letter. In part, he said the veto was due to fear of litigation and interference lack of wanting to interfere with the governance of high school sports.

"Amidst the flurry of enthusiasm to protect the integrity and fairness of women's sports in our state — a worthy cause for sure — this bill leaves too many unanswered questions,” Holcomb said in his veto of the bill, according to the op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

In a firsthand account published by USA Today in 2021, Chelsea Mitchell noted that by allowing transgender athletes who were born as boys to race against her the sport was being overtaken by transgender girls. Mitchell was a high school track athlete who noted she would have been the fastest girl in Connecticut if it had not been for transgender girls who were born as boys in front of her.