President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will win the 2026 U.S. Senate race in Texas and mocked Democrat James Talarico as unelectable because he is vegan. Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Trump said Paxton would win “very substantially” in the primary runoff against Sen. John Cornyn before going on to beat “a very defective candidate that believes in six genders and takes hits at Jesus Christ.”
He also dismissed Talarico’s chances with a line that drew quick attention in a state where beef is political as much as it is economic: “You can’t get elected as a vegan in Texas,” Trump said. “And he’s vegan, he’s a vegan in Texas.”
The attack landed against a backdrop Talarico himself helped create years earlier. In 2022, the state lawmaker gave a speech arguing that cutting meat consumption was “existential” and said, “We have heard, I think, heard more and more issues of animal welfare. I think, not just because it’s the right thing to do, and it’s the moral thing to do, but also… necessary to fight climate change.” He added, “It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption, and that we try to respect animals,” before saying, “So, I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign,” and that “we are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses.” He was seen wearing a mask during that speech, a detail Trump also seized on, saying, “Anybody wearing a mask six months ago doesn’t get it.”
Talarico won the Democratic Senate nomination in Texas earlier this year and has only recently been propelled onto the national stage. His resurfaced remarks drew immediate scrutiny in a state where beef cattle production is a multibillion-dollar industry and the largest agricultural segment, and where the National Republican Senatorial Committee mocked him on X with the line, “Who wants to tell him that cattle is the #1 commodity in Texas?”
The exchange underscored how quickly the Texas race has turned into a proxy fight over identity, culture and the state’s agricultural economy. Talarico has already shown some strength in early polling, including one recent survey in which he edged both likely Texas GOP Senate nominees, a result that has helped make him a more serious general-election figure even as Republicans try to define him around the vegan comments.
For now, Trump’s endorsement of Paxton and his swipe at Talarico do two things at once: they elevate the attorney general as the Republican standard-bearer-in-waiting and give Republicans a new line of attack in a race that is already shaping up as one of 2026’s most closely watched contests. The question now is whether the vegan line becomes a throwaway insult — or a ready-made campaign theme in a state that likes its politics with its beef.
