Kacey Musgraves Brutally Claps Back After Kristi Noem Tries To Insult Her For Backing James Talarico

On Sunday, Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico thanked his fellow Texan, Kacey Musgraves, in a post on his Threads account. Talarico had attended Musgraves Middle of Nowhere Tour concert stop in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday.

The candidate shared photos of himself with Musgraves from the concert and added her song "Uncertain, Texas" to the post.

He tagged her and wrote:

"Thank you for having me last night, [Kacey Musgraves]!"

Fired Homeland Security Secretary and former South Dakota MAGA Republican Governor Kristi Noem decided to use the post to prop up scandal-plagued Texas GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton.

Noem took a screenshot of Talarico's Threads post and shared it on Elon Musk's X platform, captioned:

"I’ll take @ellalangleymsic over Kacey Musgraves any day."

"And if I’m choosin’ Texas, I’ll take Ken Paxton over James Talarico."

Noem tagged country singer Ella Langley and added a nod to her song "Choosin' Texas."

@KristiNoem/X

People quickly noted Langley had untagged herself in Noem's post.

But Musgraves herself had the best response to Noem using Talarico’s post about the concert to give the fired former Cabinet member's unsolicited opinion on country music and the Texas Senate race.

The artist reshared Noem's post with the caption:

"I don’t think you have a dog in this fight but if you did you would have shot it."

@KaceyMusgraves/X

Musgraves' post hints at Noem's infamous memoir confession that she shot and killed her 14-month-old puppy Cricket because he was "untrainable," a move that sparked heated backlash.

People loved Musgraves clapback...

@thepondering_/X

...including James Talarico, who, a few hours after Musgraves' post, shared the message on Threads:

"Don't mess with Texas."

People also didn't think a post by Noem was the boost that Paxton’s campaign needed.

@MattMMPLS/X

@KevinBank1/X

The GOP has been throwing everything—and everyone—they can at Talarico to try to boost Paxton in the polls.

MAGA Republican President Donald Trump showed up for an impromptu midterm GOP convention in Texas that Paxton later complained hurt him in the polls. Failed Los Angeles mayoral candidate and reality TV performer Spencer Pratt took aim at Talarico, calling him "weird" for not being married by age 37 despite numerous Republicans in the same situation.

The Paxton camp has repeatedly attacked Talarico's masculinity. And numerous right-wing pundits and pastors have labeled Talarico a "vegan," a "demon," and even prayed for his death.

For his part, Talarico has taken the criticisms in stride, focusing on the issues instead of wallowing in the mud with Paxton and the GOP.