Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico visited a barbecue restaurant in South Dallas to talk about the rising cost of beef —and the fact that he’s not a vegan.
Talarico’s Republican opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, accused Talarico of being a vegan during his victory speech after the runoff election.
“He's a vegan who thinks God is non-binary and that there's actually six biological sexes,” Paxton said. “It's hard to imagine someone more radical than that.”
Talarico has confirmed multiple times that he’s not a vegan. At Smokey Joe’s BBQ in Dallas, he told the press Paxton’s attacks are a distraction from more important issues, like the price of beef and affordability.
“He’s going to lie about what I eat,” Talarico said. “I'm going to focus on making sure Texans can afford to eat.”
The U.S. cattle herd is shrinking. There were 86.2 million cattle and calves in the U.S. as of January 1 according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the lowest since 1951. The Washington Post reported the higher cost of beef contributed to the closure of several Texas barbecue restaurants.
Paxton launched an antitrust investigation of the meatpacking industry alongside the Department of Justice last month, accusing four companies of driving up beef prices and lowering the amount paid to Texas cattle ranchers.
“Texans deserve fairly priced beef and our state’s cattle ranchers deserve to be paid fairly for their hard work,” Paxton said in a press release. “If major meatpackers manipulated the market to underpay ranchers while forcing families to pay higher prices at the grocery store, we will hold them accountable. My office will aggressively investigate any violations of antitrust law to protect fair competition, ranchers, and Texas consumers.”
Talarico pointed to tariffs and cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture as reasons for the increase in beef prices. He also said the cost may become intolerable soon for Texans’ wallets.
“I think with the rising price of beef, we may all be forced to be vegans pretty soon,” Talarico said.
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