Every Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee either skipped or walked out of a hearing on protecting women's sports, refusing to call a single witness or ask a single question on an issue where polls show more than 70 percent of Americans side against them.
Only two Democrats bothered to show up at all. Ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois delivered an opening statement, declared he would not participate further, and left. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota sat silently and walked out within the first hour. The remaining Democratic members never appeared, Fox News Digital reported. Democrats called zero witnesses.
The result: a Senate hearing on one of the most contested issues in American culture proceeded as a one-party affair, with Republican senators questioning witnesses while every Democratic chair sat empty. Witnesses who came to Washington to share their experiences with biological males competing in women's athletics faced no engagement from the other side of the aisle.
Durbin used his opening statement to frame the hearing as an attack on transgender people rather than a question of competitive fairness. He cited a Trevor Project study on suicide risk among young LGBTQ+ individuals and characterized efforts to protect women's sports as harmful to the broader community.
Durbin told the committee:
"We can all agree that we want to be fair and safe in women's athletics, but this vendetta against a small number of people in the trans community affects everyone, including cisgender girls, who can be subject to inappropriate gender verification checks."
He then announced he would not treat the proceeding as legitimate. "I will not ask questions, and I already did not call any witnesses," Durbin said. He left shortly after. His office, the only Democratic office to respond when reporters contacted all ten Democratic committee members, pointed to his opening remarks as sufficient explanation.
The strategy was clear: dismiss the hearing's premise, refuse to participate, and leave. It mirrors a broader pattern of Congressional Democrats staging political protests rather than engaging with proceedings they find inconvenient.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut skipped the hearing entirely. When a Fox News Digital reporter approached him in person, Blumenthal said he had a classified briefing on the Iran war and could not attend.
Asked about his stance on protecting women's sports, Blumenthal shut the conversation down: "I'm not going to talk about it in the hallway here." Eight other Democratic committee members did not respond to outreach at all.
The silence stands out. These are senators who serve on a committee with jurisdiction over civil rights legislation and constitutional questions. They chose not to make their case, not to challenge Republican arguments, and not to put a single witness on the record in their defense. That is not a scheduling conflict. It is a decision.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina did not let the walkout pass without comment. "I'm also disappointed our Democratic colleagues left the room, because I think the risk of physical harm is real and has already happened," Graham said. The hearing's focus on safety and competitive fairness for female athletes made the Democratic absence more conspicuous, not less.
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana kept his remarks brief: "I'm a little disappointed that my Democratic colleagues left. It's their right, but I'm disappointed." The tone was measured, but the point was plain, Democrats exercised a right to leave, and in doing so forfeited any claim to have engaged with the substance.
The sharpest criticism came from Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida. She pointed out that the hearing had devolved into Republicans questioning witnesses one after another because no Democrat remained to take a turn. The walkout dynamic has echoes in other recent Senate proceedings where partisan friction has ground the chamber's work to a halt.
Moody told the committee:
"The reason why it is going now from one Republican senator to another Republican senator is because there's not one Democratic senator here to ask those that are actually involved as females in female sports about the dangers and missed opportunities and challenges for what's been happening across our nation for our young women and girls."
She then zeroed in on the gender gap in the walkout. Not a single female Democratic senator stayed to question the witnesses, women who had come to testify about their own experiences in competitive athletics.
"Shockingly, not one female Democratic senator has engaged in this hearing or asked you any questions about your experiences, your concerns, your fears based on your backgrounds, [or] what you predict may happen in the future if we don't, as you said, lead."
Part of the Democratic messaging around the hearing rested on a March 2025 press release from Durbin's office. That release claimed measures to protect women's sports would "subject women and girls to physical inspection by an adult if someone from an opposing team accused them of being transgender." Fox News Digital noted that this claim was never substantiated by any language in the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act or by examples of such examinations in practice. The only verification method publicly advocated by supporters of the legislation is cheek swab DNA testing, a non-invasive procedure.
Democrats raised similar concerns about invasive gender tests ahead of a vote on the bill last year. That messaging drew what Fox News Digital described as "strong backlash, including within their own base." The pattern suggests a talking point that has already failed politically but has not been retired. Senate standoffs over politically charged nominations have followed a similar dynamic of stalling and deflection in recent months.
The political math explains the empty chairs more than any classified briefing does. Surveys from the New York Times, Quinnipiac, and Pew Research Center have all found that more than 70 percent of Americans believe women's sports should not permit biological males to compete. That is not a narrow partisan split. It is a consensus position that cuts across party lines.
Twenty-three states still lack rules prohibiting biological males from competing in women's sports. President Trump signed an executive order last February to protect women's athletics at the federal level, and the administration has since engaged in legal battles with California, Maine, and Minnesota over enforcement. The issue is not going away, it is accelerating toward the 2026 midterms.
Many Democrats have quietly distanced themselves from past support of transgender athletes competing in women's categories, Fox News Digital reported, without explicitly reversing their positions. The walkout fits that pattern: avoid the vote, avoid the question, avoid the record. It is easier to skip a hearing than to explain to voters why you oppose a position seven in ten Americans hold.
Confirmation battles in the current Senate have exposed similar fault lines, with individual senators facing pressure to explain votes that put them at odds with their party or their constituents. On women's sports, Democrats have chosen a third option: say nothing at all.
Moody's final observation cut to the core of what the walkout revealed. She suggested Durbin's opening statement, the one that dismissed the hearing as illegitimate, served a specific political purpose beyond principle.
"I assume that was because he's trying to justify why not one woman on the other side of the aisle showed up to ask these questions and engage," Moody said. The broader pattern of partisan maneuvering in the Senate this session has made procedural protest a default tactic for the minority. But a hearing on women's sports is not a nomination fight or a budget bill. It is a question about whether girls and women get a fair playing field.
Democrats had every opportunity to make their case, call their own witnesses, and challenge the Republican framing on the record. They chose empty chairs instead. That tells voters everything a hearing transcript would have.