Senate Leadership Fund ads airing in Ohio feature Soren Aldaco, who says Sherrod Brown supports irreversible surgery on “kids like me.” Texas court records show she lived and was treated in Texas, and that the surgery was performed when she was a legal adult. Ohio already bans that care for minors.
What the ads say
The spots come from the Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC backing Sen. Jon Husted against Democrat Sherrod Brown in the Nov. 3, 2026 special election. Husted was appointed to the seat after JD Vance became vice president. Brown, a former three-term senator, lost in 2024 and is running again.
In a Sept. 28 release, the PAC said Aldaco was groomed online as a child, told by a doctor she was transgender, and then given hormone therapy and a “botched double mastectomy.” In the ads she says, “Sherrod Brown supports sex changes for minors, irreversible surgery on kids like me,” and, “Surgery without my parents’ consent. I was a kid.” Another version describes a 20-minute meeting, hormone shots, and years of trauma. The PAC also claims Brown “admitted he would never oppose” those operations.
The ads do not say she is from Ohio. The framing, including “Ohio’s kids deserve better. So did I,” invites viewers to treat her case as an Ohio example.
What the records show
Aldaco is from Tarrant County, Texas, not Ohio. She sued Texas providers over the care. In Aldaco v. Wood, No. 24-1069, the Texas Supreme Court said she contacted the Crane Clinic for a double mastectomy, obtained a Feb. 22, 2021 recommendation letter from therapist Barbara Rose Wood, and had the surgery on June 11, 2021. Reporting based on those records, including WEWS News 5 Cleveland, says she was 19, so parental consent was not required. The court did not find the therapist negligent. It held only that her suit was filed in time under the Texas Medical Liability Act and sent the case back for a trial on the merits.
The hormone claim is narrower than the ad suggests. Her suit alleges testosterone was prescribed in Texas while she was still a minor. The surgery the ads call a childhood operation was performed after she turned 18, in another state, with no reported connection to Brown or to Ohio law.
Brown’s actual comment
The “admitted he would never oppose it” line points to a July 19, 2023 interview with WSYX in Columbus. Brown said: “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.” He was opposing a bill from then-Sen. JD Vance that would have made it a felony for doctors to provide surgery or puberty blockers to anyone under 18.
PolitiFact rated False the claim that Brown supports “forcing childhood sex change surgery.” It found no statement in which he endorsed forcing surgery on children.
Brown answered the attacks with his own ad, on which his campaign has spent more than $200,000, according to AdImpact figures cited by The New York Times. Ohio voters in that spot call the issue a distraction and say transgender surgeries on children are illegal in Ohio, then pivot to groceries, health coverage, utility bills and gas.
Ohio law
House Bill 68, enacted in 2024 over Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto, bans gender-affirming medical care for minors, including hormones and surgery, and restricts transgender girls in girls’ sports. The 10th District Court of Appeals later blocked it. On April 29, 2025, the Ohio Supreme Court stayed that ruling, so the ban remains in effect while Moe v. Yost is on appeal.
State Rep. Anita Somani, a Columbus-area Democrat and OB-GYN, told News 5 the ads are misleading and that no such surgery on a minor has been done in Ohio. Republican strategist Bob Clegg told the station the patient’s state does not matter, because she is objecting to politicians who would allow the intervention, and he asked, “How many mature 19-year-olds have you met?” He also called the Ohio ban a temporary prohibition while the state Supreme Court reviews it.
What is and is not established
Established: Aldaco is a Texas detransitioner. Her mastectomy was in Texas on June 11, 2021, at age 19. Her malpractice case is pending on the merits after a June 26, 2026 Texas Supreme Court ruling on the statute of limitations. Brown has not been shown to have supported forcing surgery, and he had no role in her care. Ohio’s minor ban is currently in force during appeal.
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