This was hardly new. Paxton has been disparaging Talarico in gendered terms for months, casting the Democrat’s support for transgender individuals and a 2022 comment about reducing meat consumption as fundamental threats to Texan values. Calling Talarico “low-T” insinuates that he has lower testosterone levels, and thus is insufficiently manly. He has also repeatedly hammered Talarico for saying in 2021 that “God is nonbinary,” comments that Talarico has tried to walk back.
“The attacks resonate more broadly, potentially because they connect this political conflict to larger cultural fears about gender and authority and social change,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.
The modern “culture wars” are preoccupied with gender identity, specifically casting the transgender community—which accounts for less than 1 percent of the national population—as existential threats to American society. Meredith Conroy, a political science professor at California State University of San Bernardino, said that Paxton was engaging in “gender conflict framing,” a concept she developed for her book Masculinity, Media and the American Presidency. As competitions, elections naturally lend themselves to oppositional comparisons, and masculinity is one of the classic paradigms.
Rottinghaus noted that Texas politicians have long been rewarded by performing an extreme version of masculinity and toughness, from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s overt machismo, to President George W. Bush’s “cowboy persona,” to current Governor Greg Abbott’s emphasis on border security. Even former Governor Ann Richards, the last prominent Democrat to serve in a statewide position before losing reelection in 1994, was known for her tough-on-crime policies. Manliness is thus often tied to Texans’ fundamental political and cultural identity.
Paxton’s first ad of the general election further highlights this contrast in explicit terms. A narrator says “this is Texas” over an image of sliced brisket, then adds “this is not,” showing the 2022 footage of Talarico calling for a “non-meat campaign.” The final seconds of the ad include an image of Paxton shaking Trump’s hand with the comment “this is Texas.” It then shows a picture of Talarico superimposed with the words “radical” and “too low-T for Texas.”
Caroline Heldman, a political science professor and the chair of the Gender, Women and Sexuality Department at Occidental College, argued that anti-LGBTQ sentiment in itself is “rooted in sexism.” By feminizing Talarico, Paxton is hoping to trigger the discomfort of more socially conservative voters who have a more traditional conception of masculinity.
Meanwhile, Paxton has embodied the kind of Trumpian machismo that has dominated American politics for the past decade, an unapologetic version of masculinity that embraces traditional gender norms and encourages criticism of women and other individuals perceived to be more feminine. Although his wife filed for divorce on “biblical grounds” last year, Heldman said that Paxton’s alleged history of affairs may work in his favor, as it could be seen as “masculine bona fides.”
“Candidates engage in this because it works. Even in 2026, gender norms remain powerful, and men who are perceived as violating them get penalized,” said Conroy.
“On the Paxton side, this race won’t be about Ken Paxton. It’ll be about James Talarico,” said Rottinghaus.
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