The Trumpian Machismo Infecting the Texas Senate Race (opens in new tab)

Within hours of winning the Republican nomination for the Texas Senate election, Attorney General Ken Paxton was attacking his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, as insufficiently masculine to represent their state in Washington. In his acceptance speech, Paxton rolled out the nicknames “Low-T Talarico,” “Tofu Talarico,” “Six-Gender Jimmy,” and “James Tala-freak-o,” reminiscent of the derogatory titles President Donald Trump gives his political enemies.This was hardly new. Paxton has been d...