德克萨斯州总检察长肯·帕克斯顿本可以在5月大选首支参议院竞选广告中选择任意数量的议题。德州选民非常关心生活成本、边境安全、医疗保健和腐败等问题。但帕克斯顿的首支广告却选中了民调机构通常不询问的内容。他指责对手、民主党籍州众议员詹姆斯·塔拉里科“睾酮太低，不配德州”。睾酮水平太低。不够男子气概。
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton could have picked any number of messages for his first Senate campaign ad of the general election back in May. Texans care a lot about cost of living, border security, healthcare, and corruption, among other issues. But Paxton’s very first ad went with something that pollsters don’t generally ask about. He accused his opponent, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, of being “Too Low-T for Texas.”Too low in testosterone. Not manly enough.
选民通常不会将男子气概列为任何竞选中的首要议题，但帕克斯顿的开局一击并非完全毫无根据。2024年，年轻男性以惊人幅度支持唐纳德·特朗普总统。在那次竞选中，特朗普迎合“男性圈层”，频频亮相各类“直男风”播客，并借助其硬汉、政治不正确的形象，吸引厌倦了“觉醒主义1.0”政治的受众。
Voters generally don’t rank masculinity as a top issue in any race, but Paxton’s opening salvo wasn’t completely out of left field. Young men broke for President Donald Trump by a shocking margin in 2024. During that campaign, Trump played to the “manosphere”, appearing on many a bro-y podcast and leaning on his macho, politically incorrect image for an audience burned out on the politics of Woke 1.
特朗普在初选中背书帕克斯顿而非现任共和党参议员约翰·科宁（共和党-德州），帕克斯顿与总统的绑定程度不亚于选票上任何候选人——因此他复制这一策略并不令人意外。
Paxton, whom Trump endorsed over incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the primary, is as closely linked to the president as any candidate on the ballot — so it’s not all that surprising to see him attempt the same strategy.
毕竟，德州有其刻板印象：粗犷的个人主义、牛仔靴、熏肉、德州骑警，不一而足。
And Texas, after all, has its stereotypes: rugged individualism. Cowboy boots. Smoked meats.
从“低睾酮”广告开始，帕克斯顿竞选团队全盘押注于利用男子气概政治和传统性别观念与性别角色，将塔拉里科描绘为不够资格担任参议员——整个共和党生态系统也随之跟进。
Texas Rangers. The list goes on. Starting with the “Low-T” ad, the Paxton campaign has been all in on exploiting the politics of masculinity and traditional ideas about gender and gender roles to cast Talarico as not man enough to serve as senator — and the rest of the Republican ecosystem has followed suit.
5月，特朗普政策顾问斯蒂芬·米勒在推特上发文称：“民主党在德克萨斯州创造了历史，提名了他们的首位跨性别参议院候选人。”副总统JD·万斯最近在该州的一次集会上，几乎直指塔拉里科是同性恋。埃隆·马斯克的超级政治行动委员会向该州投放了大量AI生成的垃圾广告，比如这一则，广告中一名身穿亮片运动衫的成年变装皇后扣篮压倒了一些女性运动员。
In May, Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller tweeted that “The Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender senate candidate.”Vice President JD Vance recently walked right up to the line of calling Talarico gay at a rally in the state. Elon Musk’s super PAC has flooded the state with AI slop commercials like this one, in which an adult drag queen in a sparkly jersey dunks on some female athletes.
该广告攻击塔拉里科支持跨性别运动员。特朗普本人也参与了攻击，指责塔拉里科是素食主义者——在某些德克萨斯州圈子里，这可是斗殴级别的挑衅。（塔拉里科，37岁，是一名顺性别男性，表示他有女朋友，并否认是素食主义者。）攻击归攻击，有效的政治策略又是另一码事。为了弄清帕克斯顿的“男子气概”竞选策略是否奏效，《Today, Explained》节目组前往了德克萨斯州。
The commercial attacks Talarico for being supportive of trans athletes. Trump himself has also weighed in, accusing Talarico of veganism — fighting words in some Texas circles. (Talarico, 37, is a cis man, says he has a girlfriend, and denies being a vegan.) Attacks are one thing, though, and an effective political strategy another. To figure out whether Paxton’s masculinity campaign is working, the Today, Explained team headed to Texas.
“人们生气是因为别的事”在最近一个周一晚上，于德克萨斯州沃思堡举行的一次帕克斯顿集会上，杰森塔和苏珊·西姆斯互相煽动，比赛谁能嘲讽塔拉里科的男子气概最狠。
“People are mad about other things”At a Paxton rally in Fort Worth, Texas, on a recent Monday night, Jacenta and Susan Sims were riling each other up, seeing who could get the best dig in at Talarico’s manhood.
苏珊指了指自己的胸口。“我的T恤上写着‘绝无塔拉里科可能’。因为他有点怪胎，”她说。她列举了塔拉里科过去关于性别的一些言论来支持自己的说法。“比如，你怎么能说上帝是非二元性别的，还说有六种性别？”2021年，塔拉里科在德克萨斯州立法会议期间曾说上帝是非二元性别的，他后来形容这是一个“尴尬”的观点，意指上帝超越了人类的分类。同样在2021年，他在一场关于跨性别儿童参与体育比赛的辩论中声称有六种性别。他最近收回了该言论，表示只有两种性别。
Susan pointed to her own chest. “My shirt says ‘No Tala-freaking-way.’ Because he is kind of a freak,” she said. She listed some of Talarico’s past comments on gender to support her statement. “Like, how are you talking about God like he’s nonbinary and there’s six sexes?”Talarico said God was nonbinary during a Texas legislative session in 2021, making what he later described as a “cringey” point about God being above human categorization. Also in 2021, he claimed during a debate over trans kids in sports that there were six sexes. He recently walked that statement back, saying there were only two sexes.
在帕克斯顿集会上，贾森塔·西姆斯对此并不买账：“要是你真往深了看，他内裤上怕是还带着蕾丝呢。他身上没有一点男子气概。”苏珊插话道：“他看起来像个小男孩。他不够强硬。”贾森塔又说：“我们需要让男子气概回到得克萨斯。”已经全力支持帕克斯顿的选民也同样全力认同这种攻击路线，这或许并不令人意外。但这些并不是帕克斯顿需要说服的选民。
Jacenta Sims at the Paxton rally wasn’t having it: “If you really had to look deep, he’s probably got some lace on his panties. There’s nothing masculine about him.”Susan piped in, “He looks like a little boy. He’s not tough enough.”Back to Jacenta: “And we need masculinity back in Texas.”Perhaps it’s not surprising that voters who are already all in on Paxton would also be all in on this line of attack. But those are not the voters Paxton needs to convince.
“我不在乎塔拉里科是不是同性恋。我不认为他是，但就算他是，对我也不重要。”杰西·桑多瓦尔在沃思堡的塔兰特县选举中心外说。他刚刚在提前投票中投了票。“我只是觉得他们这么做是想转移人们对真正问题的注意力。”另一位提前投票的选民迈克尔不愿透露姓氏，他在当地一家餐馆当厨师。“我就是觉得这整套有毒男子气概的说法太没必要了，”他说。
“I don’t care if Talarico’s gay or not. I don’t believe he is, but it wouldn’t matter to me if he is.”Jesse Sandoval said outside the Tarrant County Elections Center in Fort Worth. He’d just cast his ballot in early voting. “I just felt that they were doing that to try to deflect from the real issues.”Another early voter, Michael, didn’t want to give his last name, and works as a cook at a local restaurant. “I just feel like this whole toxic masculinity thing is so unnecessary,” he said.
“我是被一个非常、非常有攻击性、十足大男子主义的人养大的。我觉得你得让自己想明白，为什么那些东西并不——为什么说那种话是不对的，你懂吗？”
“I was raised by someone who was very, very aggressive and just a very macho man. And I feel like you have to educate yourself as to why those things are not — why saying stuff like that isn’t okay, you know?”
同样在投票站的沃尔特·汤普森说：“因为他说话温和，他们就觉得他是同性恋。可你知道，他不是。他只是不是那种高大粗犷的样子。他们接受不了这一点。”32岁的建筑工人内特也不愿透露姓氏，他说2026年和上一次总统选举完全是不同的时刻。“如果这是2024年，那些（信息）是有效的。但我觉得今年不会有效，”他说。
Walt Thompson, also at the polling place, said, “Because he’s soft-spoken, they feel that he’s gay. And you know, he’s not. He’s just not this big rugged looking guy. They can’t accept that.”Nate, a 32-year-old construction worker who also declined to share his last name, said 2026 is a whole different moment from the last presidential election. “If this was 2024, those [messages] are effective. But I think this year it’s not gonna be effective,” he said.
“人们气的是别的事。当人们关心的是油价时，他们没法靠那个来竞选。”换句话说，当你养不起家人、开不起车去上班时，文化战争的冲击方式就不一样了。（还是）经济问题，笨蛋马特·安格尔是“孤星计划”的主任，该组织是一个民主党研究型政治行动委员会兼传播公司。他说，这些针对塔拉里科男子气概的攻击，暴露了共和党人的底牌。
“People are mad about other things. When people care about gas prices, they can’t run on that.”In other words, the culture wars hit differently when you can’t afford to feed your family or drive to work. It’s (still) the economy, stupid Matt Angle is director of the Lone Star Project, a Democratic research PAC and communications firm. He says these attacks on Talarico’s masculinity are a tell from Republicans.
“共和党人担心的是人们待在家里不出来投票，”安格尔对《今日解释》说。“那些人，他们对经济感到愤怒，他们对特朗普感到愤怒，而（共和党人）正试图通过迎合他们的偏见来激发他们。……他们迫切需要让恐惧成为驱动力，而不是愤怒和沮丧。”到目前为止，这似乎并不奏效。最近的民调显示塔拉里科领先。《库克政治报告》称这场选情胜负难料。得克萨斯州上一次选出民主党参议员是在1988年，但塔拉里科似乎真有机会打破共和党数十年的主导地位。
“What the Republicans are worried about is people staying home,” Angle told Today, Explained. “Those people, they’re mad about the economy, they’re mad at Trump, and [Republicans] are trying to motivate them by playing to their prejudices. … They desperately need fear to be the motivator rather than anger and frustration.”So far, it doesn’t seem to be working. Most recent polling puts Talarico in the lead. The Cook Political Report is calling the race a toss-up. The last time Texas elected a Democratic senator was 1988, but Talarico appears to have a real shot at breaking decades of Republican dominance.
安格尔说，塔拉里科将信息高度聚焦于生活负担能力，这正在打动选民。
Angle says Talarico’s laser focus on a message of affordability is breaking through to voters.
“他们明白自己的薪水没有发挥应有的购买力。他们喜欢有人跟他们谈论食品杂货的价格、住房的成本、医疗的费用，”他说。那么，男子气概到底该归谁所有？
“They’re understanding that their salaries aren’t going as far as they should. And they like that somebody’s talking to them about the cost of groceries, the cost of housing, the cost of healthcare,” he said. Who gets to own masculinity, anyway?
共和党的男子气概攻击之所以产生效果，还有另一个关键因素：发出信息的人。毕竟，帕克斯顿算不上传统男性美德的典范。（问问特朗普就知道了，他忍不住一再挖苦自己亲手挑选的这位候选人的穿着、长相和说话方式。）据得克萨斯州共和党妇女联合会主席吉尔·泰特说，她的许多成员对帕克斯顿的候选人资格越来越持怀疑态度。这是因为他的妻子、得克萨斯州参议员安吉拉·帕克斯顿去年以她所说的“圣经依据”提出离婚。实际的离婚申请将通奸列为离婚理由。
There’s another key factor in how the GOP’s masculinity attacks are landing: the messenger. Paxton, after all, isn’t exactly a paragon of traditionally masculine virtue. (Just ask Trump, who can’t stop needling his hand-picked candidate for the way he dresses, looks, and talks.) According to Jill Tate, president of the Texas Federation of Republican Women, many of her members had grown skeptical of Paxton’s candidacy. That’s because his wife, Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last year on what she described as “biblical grounds.”The actual filing listed adultery as the reason for divorce.
“我在德克萨斯州政坛摸爬滚打已有30多年，”泰特说，“自从共和党在90年代掌权以来，这是我第一次真正担心我们会在全州范围的选举中失利。”安吉拉·帕克森最近帮了前夫一把，在泰特所属的共和党女性团体发表了一场题为“房间里的大象”的演讲。她还拍摄了一则广告为“共和党全套候选人”助选，但广告中并未点出帕克森的名字。
“I’ve been involved in Texas politics over 30 years,” Tate said, “and this is the first time I’ve truly been concerned we could lose a statewide [race] since the Republicans took over in the ’90s.”Angela Paxton recently did her ex a solid, giving a speech to the Republican women in Tate’s group called the “elephant in the room” speech. She also cut an ad boosting “the Republican ticket,” though not Paxton by name.
泰特谈到那场演讲时说：“她提到，我们的候选人可能会跌倒，可能会做出令人失望、在道德上错误的事，但极其重要的是要记住，那是人性的一面。而那不是他们上任后会做的事。”演讲呼吁听众为团队投票——为共和党人投票——而不是基于某一个人的道德缺陷来投票。
“She talked about the fact that while our candidates may fall down and they may do things that are disappointing and morally wrong, it is extremely important to remember that that is the human side. And that’s not what they’re going to do in office,” Tate said of the speech, which urged the audience to vote for the team — for Republicans — rather than on the moral failings of one person.
泰特认为，那场演讲改变了一些人的想法，可能会促使现场的女性去投票给肯·帕克森，而不是干脆待在家里不投票。但在铁杆共和党人的房间之外，那个信息——尽管是肯·帕克森，也要投肯·帕克森——可能并没有说服力，无论广告如何试图把他的对手描绘得不够男性化。
Tate believes that the speech changed some minds and could push women in the room to vote for Ken Paxton instead of just staying home. But outside of a room of diehard Republicans, that message — vote for Ken Paxton despite Ken Paxton — may not be a compelling one, no matter how much ads try to paint his opponent as less masculine.
“德克萨斯州对民主党人来说，每天都是一场艰难的刀刃相向的战斗，”民主党策略师安格尔说。但在2026年，疲软的共和党候选人加上对经济的愤怒，可能足以给民主党一个机会——并有助于化解帕克森试图将这场竞选变成对一种极其特定的男性气质观进行公投的企图。
“Texas is a knife fight uphill every day for Democrats,” Angle, the Democratic strategist, said. But in 2026, the mix of a weak Republican candidate and anger at the economy might be enough to give Democrats a chance — and help neutralize Paxton’s efforts to turn the race into a referendum on a very specific view of masculinity.
资深得克萨斯州政治撰稿人瑞安·鲁萨克对此表示认同。“我认为，塔拉里科可以利用这一点为自己谋利，反过来讲：‘好吧，那些穿着牛仔靴、吃遍所有牛腩的人，正是让我们加不起五美元一加仑汽油的人。正是他们把我们拖入了伊朗的战争。正是他们把事情搞到现在这样——即便在我们这里建房还算相对容易的地方，你也买不起房子。’”“如果我们没有这样的环境，”安格尔说，“我认为詹姆斯可能更难实现突破。”
Ryan Rusak, a veteran Texas politics writer, agrees. “I think that where Talarico can use this to his benefit is to turn it around to say, ‘Okay, well, these guys who wear the boots and eat all the brisket are the ones that got us $5 gas. They’re the ones that got us into a war in Iran. They’re the ones that have gotten it to where you can’t buy a house even in a place where we still make it fairly easy to build houses.’”“Had we not had an environment like this,” Angle said, “I think it might have been harder for James to break through.”