Texas Democrat and U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico fired back at his opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Friday after the two Republicans echoed MAGA insults about his masculinity.“I’ve said before, and I will keep saying that real men serve others; weak men serve themselves,” Talarico told MS NOW’s “The Briefing” host Jen Psaki. “And so I welcome this debate about what it means to be a man, and I don’t think Ken Paxton or Ted Cruz are in a position to tell anybody what a real man is.”Talarico’s campaign for the Senate has MAGA Republicans on the defensive, falsely claiming that the Democrat is transgender, gay or vegan. Polling shows the Democrat essentially tied with Paxton in reliably red Texas.Fox News’ Jesse Watters questioned the validity of Talarico’s relationship with his girlfriend, and Cruz recently mocked his fellow Texan’s physique.“I gotta say, if you were making a list of 1,000 adjectives to describe this guy, ‘masculine’ would not be one of them,” Cruz told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “I mean, this guy, if a stiff breeze came by, it would blow him over like a feather.”Paxton put out an ad bashing his Democratic opponent as “Radical Talarico: too low-T for Texas,” speculating about Talarico’s testosterone levels.“Here’s what real men don’t do,” Talarico said Friday in response to the attacks. “They don’t lie and cheat their way through life, they don’t sell their soul to the highest bidder, they don’t steal from other people in order to enrich themselves.” The Democrat hailed his adoptive father, Mark Talarico, as a true masculine figure, recalling how he would not only mow their lawn but his elderly neighbor’s as well, without being asked and without even talking about it.“He just did it because that’s what a man does,” Talarico said. “A man takes responsibility, a man upholds his commitments to his family and his neighbors. A man does what’s right, even when no one is watching.”James Talarico speaks at a rally at Rich's Houston on May 27, 2026, to explain his plan to take on Republican nominee Ken Paxton. Danielle Villasana via Getty ImagesTalarico told Psaki that the attacks he’s faced on the campaign trail are “nothing compared to what Texans are going through every day.”“The fact that politicians, including our sitting United States senator, Ted Cruz, are throwing embarrassing, cheap nicknames at their political opponents instead of focusing on improving Texans’ lives — to me, that, that is, that’s everything that’s wrong with our politics,” Talarico said. He compared the political climate to the theatrics of professional wrestling. “You’ve got these old guys lathered up in their fake tan, throwing cheesy nicknames at each other, and those nicknames, they don’t lower the cost of groceries,” Talarico continued. “They don’t lower the cost of gas or utilities or insurance, and so I’m going to keep talking about the things that Texans actually care about.”