The Democratic nominee in Nebraska's Second Congressional District, Denise Powell, opposes efforts to prevent children from undergoing sex-change surgery, a Washington Free Beacon review found.
In a February 2023 Facebook post, Powell vowed to "never ever stop fighting" against a state law signed months later that prevents minors from accessing puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and sex-change surgeries. Powell wrote in the post that the bill "would make it illegal for kids to access gender-affirming care."
The next month, Powell posted a lengthier message on Facebook in which she said preventing minors from undergoing sex-change surgeries "HURT[s] children" and encouraged her followers to "call or tweet at [their] senators."
Powell, who won the Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R.), will face Omaha city councilman Brinker Harding (R.) as she attempts to flip a district former vice president Kamala Harris carried by 4.66 percentage points in 2024. Cook Political Report gives the race a "Lean D" rating, but Democrats have only won the district once since 1994. She drew controversy earlier this year over her work for left-wing dark money groups even as she campaigns on a pledge to "get dark money out of politics once and for all."
Powell also helped organize a letter pushing the Omaha children's hospital to publicly oppose the bill, telling the Nebraska Examiner at the time that it was "really, really disheartening that our legislators would be spending so much time actively trying to create more barriers for kids who are already vulnerable in our state."
Before Powell launched her congressional campaign, she cofounded a group called Women Who Run Nebraska that describes itself as "the only Political Action Committee (PAC) in the Midwest dedicated solely to recruiting, supporting, and electing forward-thinking women." The group's website states, "While all women face challenges, Black women, Latinas, Native and Indigenous women, trans women, and women with disabilities often face even more," adding that the organization is "committed to making sure these candidates get the equitable support and resources they deserve."
Women Who Run Nebraska has backed a number of radical politicians in the state. One of those candidates, former state senator Jen Day (D.), has spoken out against the proposed "Fairness for Girls" amendment to the state's constitution that will appear on the ballot this November and would prevent men and boys from playing on women's and girls' sports teams.
"The obsession with genitals continues and, instead of getting therapy for their obsession, they are creating a ballot initiative called 'Fairness for Girls' that essentially would eliminate trans athletes from participating in sports and would enshrine this bigotry IN THE STATE CONSTITUTION. Gross," Day wrote in the caption of an Instagram post in March. "Gross … None of these people actually care about women and girls, they only care about hating trans people and, if it wasn’t weird before, it’s definitely getting weird now. Also a reminder that Jordy Bahl is using her platform as an athlete to spread this type of hateful disgusting nonsense alongside the original poster child of grifters, Riley Gaines. Double gross."
Women Who Run Nebraska contributed nearly $25,000 to Day's campaign committee in 2023 and 2024, and Powell gave $750 herself.
Powell's group contributed $3,250 to State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh (D.), who filibustered the bill prohibiting sex-change surgery for minors.
"If this legislature collectively decides that legislating hate against children is our priority, then I am going to make it painful—painful for everyone," she said in a floor speech. "I will burn the session to the ground over this bill."
Women Who Run Nebraska has also given to a campaign committee for State Sen. Megan Hunt (D.), who gave a floor speech in April 2025 opposing a bill that would prevent boys from using girls' restrooms and vice versa—an effort Powell opposed two years earlier.
"The adults in the room behind me will say, 'Oh, no one is saying they can’t exist, we're just saying we want to see what their peepee looks like,'" Hunt said in the speech. "Do you understand the indignity and the humiliation of what this bill is actually saying in practice? We cannot pretend that this is separate from the mental health crisis that kids are facing … It seems to me like this theme of 'your body doesn’t belong to you, your body doesn't belong to you' is a major theme of politics today."
Hunt—who also wrote "It's a beautiful day to defund the police" on X in 2021—received $3,500 from Powell's organization.
Powell's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The Free Beacon reported in June that Powell worked as a consultant for the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which Politico called the "left's preeminent dark money hub." The Sixteen Thirty Fund gave $311 million in 2024 to a list of hundreds of left-wing organizations that work on abortion, climate, and voting issues. Powell also consulted for the New Venture Fund, a longtime "sister" organization of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which spent $429 million on progressive "social action" groups in 2024.
Nebraska attorney general Mike Hilgers (R.) sued both groups in November over allegations that they used "foreign money" to illegally support left-wing ballot measures in the state. A district court judge denied a motion to dismiss the suit in April.
