This story was originally reported by Shefali Luthra of The 19th. Meet Shefali and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.
Republicans are focusing on one question in one of November’s top races: Is the Democrat a real man?
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who clinched the GOP’s nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday night, released a new ad Wednesday —his first of the general election — accusing his opponent, state Sen. James Talarico, of being too “low-T for Texas.” “Low-T” is a reference to testosterone levels and often used as an insult by influencers in the so-called manosphere, who say low testosterone makes someone weaker.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the architect of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy and one of his top advisers, picked up on a similar line of attack, posting on the social media platform X on Wednesday that Democrats had nominated the “their first transgender senate candidate.” Talarico is cisgender and identifies as an LGBTQ+ ally; he is in a relationship with a woman.
For Trump’s Republican Party, the focus on testosterone isn’t new. In 2016, as a presidential candidate, Trump appeared on Dr. Mehmet Oz’s talk show to highlight his testosterone levels as proof of his health and manliness. Oz is now the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under Trump.
“It isn’t new to the ethos of America — the masculine as everything — but it is much more politically forward now thanks to Trump than it used to be,” said Monika McDermott, a political scientist at Fordham University who studies masculinity in politics. “Now it’s the game plan of most Republicans to try to play on having the more masculine party and being able to claim that liberals and progressives are weak and feminine and not masculine enough for America.”
Even before Paxton’s Tuesday night victory, Republicans were developing a line of attack essentially calling Talarico effeminate or gay — with Wesley Hunt, a Republican congressman who also lost in the Senate primary, posting “what’s his name” when Talarico confirmed in an interview last week that he had a partner who is a woman.
Texas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988. But Talarico, a former middle school teacher and seminarian, has energized Democrats, who hope that record-setting campaign fundraising could help flip the seat.
Polling suggests a close general election contest between Talarico and Paxton, who was endorsed by Trump and won the runoff with incumbent Sen. John Cornyn handily but who has been embroiled in controversy for much of his time in the public eye. In 2023 he was impeached by the Republican-led state House of Representatives on charges of bribery, abuse of office and obstruction of justice. He was then acquitted. After Paxton’s Tuesday night victory, the Cook Political Report updated its assessment of the race from “Likely Republican” to only “Lean Republican.”
In his first ad of the general election, Talarico has focused on Paxton’s impeachment trial, highlighting news clips to argue that the scandal-ridden attorney general is corrupt. In a television interview, he called his opponent the “most corrupt politician in America.” Many Republicans have expressed concern that Paxton’s baggage — his wife filed for divorce last July on what she called “biblical grounds” — could make him a weaker candidate.
Paxton, meanwhile, is focusing on gender, asserting that a more conservative vision of masculinity will sway Texas voters.
In his same ad on Wednesday, Paxton highlighted a clip from 2021 in which Talarico said there are “six biological sexes” — a reference to the fact that humans can have six chromosomal karyotypes, including XX, XY, XXY, XYY, XXXY and X. The ad also points to an interview where Talarico expressed compassion for trans children.
Paxton’s ad also highlighted a clip from 2022 in which Talarico said his state Senate campaign had become a “non-meat campaign.” Trump and other Republicans have falsely accused Talarico of being vegan. (The Democratic nominee recently ordered breakfast tacos with egg, cheese and potatoes at a campaign event; neither eggs nor cheese are vegan.)
“This is clearly the way Republicans are going to talk as long as it’s successful for them – which it has been for Trump, certainly,” McDermott said.
Commentators in the manosphere have often suggested that avoiding or eating less meat makes one a “soy boy,” or less of a man — a slur based in part on a false notion that eating soybeans lowers testosterone levels and raises estrogen.
For his part, Talarico told CBS News on Wednesday that he has “been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment.”
In office, Paxton has specifically gone after medical providers who offer gender-affirming care. His office issued a legal opinion in March meant to discourage mental health professionals from counseling trans kids about their gender, and in 2022 his office labeled gender-affirming care for minors as “child abuse.” In 2023, his office investigated Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, accusing the hospital of providing such care for minors; this month, the state reached a settlement that involved making the hospital open a clinic focused on “detransitioning” young people.
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