The GOP’s Attacks on James Talarico Are Straight Out of the Incel Handbook | WIREDSkip to main contentMenuSECURITYPOLITICSTHE BIG STORYBUSINESSSCIENCECULTUREREVIEWSMenuAccountAccountNewslettersSecurityPoliticsThe Big StoryBusinessScienceCultureReviewsChevronMoreExpandThe Big InterviewMagazineEventsWIRED InsiderWIRED ConsultingNewslettersPodcastsVideoLivestreamsMerchSearchSearchMiles KleeCultureMay 28, 2026 7:49 PMThe GOP’s Attacks on James Talarico Are Straight Out of the Incel HandbookClaims about low testosterone and false accusations of veganism might play well to the online far right, but will they win an election?Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico speaks in Houston, Texas.Photograph: Danielle Villasana/Getty ImagesCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyOn Tuesday, with Donald Trump’s endorsement and the backing of the MAGA faithful, scandal-ridden Texas attorney general Ken Paxton defeated incumbent US senator John Cornyn in a runoff primary to claim the Republican nomination for that seat.He then quickly set about painting his general-election opponent, Democratic Texas state representative James Talarico, as insufficiently masculine.“My opponent is the most extreme radical that Democrats have ever nominated,” Paxton said in his victory speech. “He's even running a vegan campaign, whatever that is. He goes by a few names that you may all have heard of. Some people know him as Tofu Talarico. Some people call him Six-Gender Jimmy. I've even heard some people call him James Talafreako. And others refer to him simply as Low-T Talarico.”The spattering of derogatory nicknames was a not entirely successful Trumpian flourish. (The Talarico campaign, already a fundraising juggernaut, started selling “I’m a Talafreako” T-shirts right away). But Paxton’s attacks also seemed to emanate from the manosphere and incel culture, overlapping internet communities obsessed with their own unscientific theories of gender, sex, hormones, and diet.Paxton’s first ad of the general election continued in that bro-coded vein, casting Talarico as both out of step with Texan values and lacking in testosterone: the spot ends by declaring the Democrat “too low-T for Texas.” Meanwhile, Trump adviser Stephen Miller went a step further, on Wednesday posting to X that “Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender senate candidate.”Trump, for his part, has claimed that Talarico is “a vegan in Texas, and you can’t get elected as a vegan in Texas."While his actual hormone levels are not public knowledge, Talarico is neither transgender nor vegan. The latter claim apparently stems from comments he made while running for reelection to the Texas House of Representatives in 2022. At a fundraiser for the Texas Humane Legislation Network that year, he talked about the need to reduce meat consumption—in part to combat climate change—and announced that his campaign was only buying vegan food products for its events. Talarico did not claim to be a vegan himself, has since denied that he is one, and has eaten meat and dairy on the campaign trail. At a campaign stop at Austin’s Taco Joint earlier in May, Talarico ordered two potato, egg, and cheese tacos—a totally legitimate taco order which also happens to not be vegan.The fixation on the need to eat meat and max out testosterone is of a piece with male-dominated podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience as well as toxic social media spaces where men denigrate supposedly weaker males as “soy boys.” But many of these notions have found purchase at the highest levels of the Trump administration—particularly in the messaging and policy of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose “Make America Healthy Again” embraces all manner of medical pseudoscience.Kennedy, for example, has sounded the alarm about low testosterone in men. He’s somewhat misstating the issue, because while it’s true that research shows testosterone levels declining, they are not in the clinically “low” range for the majority of males. He has also been fanatical about exhorting Americans to eat more meat in order to get their daily protein, staging photo-ops at barbecue and burger restaurants. (Ironically, whole soy foods such as tofu are a rich source of protein, containing all the essential amino acids for human nutrition.)That Republicans are now weaponizing these concepts against Talarico suggests the masculinist dogma has penetrated the national consciousness. Yet it’s far from clear that any given Texan will be particularly swayed by depictions of the former teacher and Presbyterian seminarian as unacceptably effete. What’s more, while “vegan” and “low-T” may be insults common within certain online hot spots, the argot of petty internet squabbles doesn’t necessarily translate to a statewide contest that will be decided by nearly 19 million eligible voters.Eric Koch, a Democratic strategist and founder of the political communications firm Downfield, doesn’t see the lobbing of slurs as part of a winning formula. “Ken Paxton is desperate to deflect from the fact that his own party impeached him and he’s the most corrupt politician in America,” he says. “He’s got nothing other than name-calling because his résumé, top to bottom, is one endless string of corruption and crimes, and that is why James is going to win this race.”Other Democrats are bullish, too, noting Talarico’s strong polling and ample cash—while some in Republican leadership are fretting that lifting a tarnished Paxton into the Senate, and preserving their majority in the chamber, will prove onerously expensive.In any event, Paxton, his team, and the MAGA loyalists have established that they’re all in on the Trump mindset, belittling the Democratic nominee with cheap taunts and constantly insinuating that he’s not a “real” man. The question is whether any of this will make the Republican look like a trustworthy one.CommentsBack to topTriangleYou Might Also LikeHow to find us: Add WIRED.com to your preferred sources in GoogleThese women are trying to optimize their vaginasBig Story: AI gig work is the new waiting tables—and it's soul-crushingThis summer, the American water crisis becomes realEvent: How to adapt, compete, and win in the next era of businessMiles Klee is a senior writer at WIRED covering digital culture in all its forms. He was previously a reporter at Rolling Stone and Mel magazine. He is the author of a novel, Ivyland, and a story collection, True False, as well as Double Black Diamond, a fiction collection cowritten ... 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The Republican strategy against Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico involved deploying derogatory nicknames and themes that referenced online communities obsessed with gender, sex, hormones, and diet, drawing heavily from manosphere and incel culture. This culminated in attacks by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who branded Talarico as insufficient in masculinity and suggested he was a vegan. Paxton’s rhetoric included labeling Talarico as "Tofu Talarico" and declaring him "too low-T for Texas," employing concepts that reflect specific, often unscientific, theories circulating in certain internet communities.

These attacks resonated with broader cultural and political messaging, particularly within the Trump administration’s sphere, where themes relating to male dominance and pseudoscience were amplified. For instance, Trump claimed Talarico was a "vegan in Texas," and appointees like Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promoted the idea of eating more meat, citing concerns about low testosterone, despite research indicating that men do not operate within clinically "low" hormone ranges. The text notes the irony that whole soy foods, such as tofu, are rich sources of protein, containing all essential amino acids, which contrasts with the focus on meat consumption.

The underlying dynamic suggests a weaponization of these concepts to diminish the opponent rather than engage in substantive policy debate. While these terms like "vegan" and "low-T" are common in certain online arenas, the analysis questions whether these petty internet squabbles translate effectively into sway over a statewide election involving nearly nineteen million voters. A Democratic strategist, Eric Koch, suggested that the attacks were primarily a deflection tactic by Paxton, who faced allegations of corruption, implying that the focus on name-calling served to distract from Paxton's own political liabilities.

Ultimately, the sequence of events demonstrates an attempt by the Republicans to leverage culturally charged, yet scientifically disputed, concepts to project an image of traditional masculinity and to undermine the credibility of the Democratic nominee, rather than relying on coherent political arguments. The effectiveness of this strategy in a large-scale electoral contest remains open to debate among political analysts.