尼古拉斯·里卡尔迪 在中期选举中，肉类成了菜单上的选项。随着民主党和共和党就高物价和伊朗战争展开争论，他们也在就谁是最红血统的食肉者进行食物大战。
NICHOLAS RICCARDI In the midterm elections , meat is on the menu. As Democrats and Republicans argue over high prices and the Iran war , they’re also having a food fight over who’s the most red-blooded carnivore.
本周在密西西比州出现了最新例子，民主党参议员候选人斯科特·科洛姆发布了一段视频，视频中出现了共和党参议员辛迪·海德-史密斯的一段话，她说如果消费者对牛肉价格高涨感到不满，“你知道你有这么多蛋白质可供选择。”
The latest example came this week in Mississippi, where Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom released a video with a snippet of Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith saying that if consumers are upset over high beef prices, “you know you have so many proteins to choose from.”
视频切换到一名正在烤汉堡的男子，他说：“换另一种蛋白质？我宁愿换另一位参议员。”密西西比州的选举有些不同寻常，因为是民主党人在攻击共和党人在牛肉问题上的立场。而在其他地方，共和党人则把民主党人贴上素食者或否则反对肉类的标签，试图表明他们在文化上与选民格格不入，敌视当地畜牧业，或者只是不够男子气概。
The video cuts to a man grilling burgers who says, “Pick another protein? I’d rather pick another senator instead.”The Mississippi race is somewhat unusual because it’s the Democrat hammering the Republican over beef. Elsewhere, Republicans have branded Democrats as vegans or otherwise opposed to meat, trying to show that they’re culturally out of step with voters, hostile to local cattle industries or just not manly enough.
在德克萨斯州，共和党人抓住了一段旧采访，在这段采访中，民主党参议员候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科自豪地表示，他的竞选团队当时正在为德克萨斯州议会竞选，计划转向纯素食。塔拉里科此后一直在公开场合大吃烧烤，以驳斥他的饮食选择意味着他不是真正得克萨斯人的指责。
In Texas, Republicans seized on an old interview in which Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico boasted that his campaign, then for the Texas statehouse, was going vegan. Talarico has since been publicly scarfing down barbecue to rebut allegations that his dietary choices mean he’s not a real Texan.
在科罗拉多州，共和党人一直在攻击民主党籍国会候选人曼尼·鲁蒂内尔，因为他反对肉类生产和工厂化养殖的活动。他在大学时曾被拍到赤裸上身，胸前系着人民伦理待遇动物协会的横幅。2021年，鲁蒂内尔创立了气候再农场（Climate Refarm），该组织主张减少肉类消费，并签署了主张对肉类和乳制品征税的信件。他还支持2024年的一项投票提案，旨在禁止丹佛的一家羊屠宰场，但该提案未获通过。
In Colorado, Republicans have gone after Democratic congressional candidate Manny Rutinel for his activism against meat production and factory farming. In college, he was photographed shirtless with a banner for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals around his chest. In 2021, Rutinel founded Climate Refarm, which advocated for cutting down on the use of meat and has signed onto letters advocating for raising taxes on meat and dairy. He also supported a 2024 ballot measure to ban a lamb slaughterhouse in Denver, which failed.
鲁蒂内尔（Rutinel），31岁，现在正在科罗拉多州第8选区与共和党众议员加布·埃文斯（Gabe Evans）展开竞争。该选区覆盖该州东北部广大地区，遍布牧场、奶牛场和肉类加工设施，其中包括牛肉生产巨头JBS Swift的总部。共和党人一直在抨击鲁蒂内尔倡导素食主义，甚至到了保守派媒体集团《每日电讯》（Daily Wire）本周发布了一段竞选官员的隐藏视频，视频中该官员称鲁蒂内尔“尽可能少吃肉”。
Rutinel, 31, is now running against Republican Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado’s 8th district, which includes a vast swath of the northeastern part of the state dotted with ranches, dairy farms and meat processing facilities, including the headquarters of beef production titan JBS Swift. Republicans have hammered Rutinel over advocating veganism, to the point that the conservative media group Daily Wire this week released an undercover video of a campaign official saying Rutinel eats meat “as little as possible.”
鲁蒂内尔一直强调自己在竞选途中公开吃牛排塔可，他对这些说法嗤之以鼻。“我不认为科罗拉多州选民关心我的盘子里有什么，我认为他们更关心自己盘子里有什么，”鲁蒂内尔在最近一次竞选停留后的一次采访中说道。
Rutinel, who’s made a point of publicly eating steak tacos on the campaign trail, scoffed at such arguments. “I don’t think Coloradans care about what’s on my plate, I think they care more about what’s on theirs,” Rutinel said in an interview after a recent campaign stop.
埃文斯表示，这个问题不仅仅涉及鲁蒂内尔的饮食偏好。“我不关心他个人吃什么，”埃文斯在一次采访中表示。“我关心的是他想利用政府权力让所有人都那样吃东西。”共和党人还针对另外两名民主党众议院候选人在肉类问题上进行攻击——他们抨击爱荷华州第2选区的林赛·詹姆斯（Lindsay James），该地区遍布养猪场，因为她在2020年的一条Facebook帖子中支持“无肉五月”；还抨击亚利桑那州第1选区的阿米什·沙阿（Amish Shah），因为他长期坚持素食主义和动物权利活动。
Evans said the issue goes beyond Rutinel’s meal preferences. “I don’t care what he eats personally,” Evans said in an interview. “I care that he wants to use the power of the government to make everyone eat that way.”Republicans have gone after two other Democratic House candidates on meat — hammering Lindsay James in Iowa’s 2nd district, an area filled with hog farms, for supporting “meatless May” in a 2020 Facebook post, and Amish Shah in Arizona’s 1st district for his longstanding vegetarianism and animal rights activism.
同样在爱荷华州，共和党参议院候选人、现任众议员阿什利·赫INSON（Ashley Hinson）抨击她的对手、州立法者乔什·图雷克（Josh Turek），因为他反对一项禁止在该州销售培养肉的法案。“他宁愿要来自实验室的肉，也不愿要来自我们家庭农场的肉，”她在一次竞选活动中说。
Also in Iowa, Republican Senate candidate and current Rep. Ashley Hinson slammed her opponent, state lawmaker Josh Turek, for opposing a bill banning lab-grown meat from being sold in the state. “He’d rather have meat that comes from a lab than from our family farms,” she said at a campaign appearance.
民主党人也曾就肉类问题进行抨击，但主要只是将其视为在特朗普时期成本更高的必需品之一，这压缩了选民的钱包。特朗普曾试图通过向美国市场开放牛肉进口来降低价格，尤其是来自阿根廷的牛肉，而阿根廷由一位特朗普的亲密盟友执政。
Democrats have hammered on meat as well, but mainly just as one of the staples that cost more under Trump, squeezing voters’ pocketbooks. Trump has tried to lower prices by opening U.S. markets to beef imports, especially from Argentina, which is governed by a close Trump ally.
然而，这些举措激怒了美国生产商，因为价格一直居高不下，这在共和党倾向的州制造了潜在的弱点，而民主党希望在这些州今年获得进展。根据劳工统计局的数据，上个月一磅碎牛肉的平均价格为6.79美元，较2025年1月特朗普重返白宫时的5.55美元有所上涨。
However, those moves have angered U.S. producers as prices have remained stubbornly high, creating a potential weakness in Republican-leaning states where Democrats hope to gain ground this year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average pound of ground beef cost $6.79 last month, up from $5.55 in January of 2025, when Trump returned to office.
这就是海德-史密斯在科洛姆的视频中被剪辑的采访中所讨论的动态——她是一名养牛场主，也是前州农业专员。该检察官——在该广告中还宣读了“挑选另一位参议员”的台词——正在密西西比州发起一项长期艰巨的挑战。
That was the dynamic that Hyde-Smith, a cattle rancher and former state agriculture commissioner, was addressing in her interview that was clipped in Colom’s video. The prosecutor — who also delivers the “pick another senator” line in the spot — is running a longshot challenge in Mississippi.
海德-史密斯竞选团队的一位发言人辩称，民主党应为高价承担责任。“支持拜登时期政策、导致通胀上升的是斯科特·科洛姆，”纳森·卡尔弗特说道。
A spokesman for Hyde-Smith’s campaign argued that the Democrats deserve blame for high prices. “It is Scott Colom who supports Biden-era policies that drove up inflation,” said Nathan Calvert.