Midterm campaigns are asking, where's the beef? (And how much does it cost?)

In the midterm elections, meat is on the menu.As Democrats and Republicans argue over high prices and the Iran war, they also are having a food fight over who is the most red-blooded carnivore.The latest example came this week in Mississippi, where Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom released a video with a snippet of Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republican incumbent, saying that if consumers are upset over high beef prices, “you know you have so many proteins to choose from.”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 is the Democrat hammering the Republican over beef.

Elsewhere, Republicans have branded Democrats as vegans or otherwise opposed to meat, trying to show that they are culturally out of step with voters, hostile to local cattle industries or just not manly enough.In Texas, Republicans seized on an old interview in which Democrat James Talarico, the current U.S. Senate nominee, boasted that his campaign at the time for the Texas Statehouse was going vegan. Talarico has since been publicly scarfing down barbecue to rebut allegations that his dietary choices mean he is not a real Texan.Chowing down on barbecue and tacosIn 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.Rutinel, 31, is now running against Gabe Evans, the Republican who represents Colorado's 8th Congressional District.

The vast swath in the northeastern part of the state is 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.”Rutinel has made a point of publicly eating steak tacos … Cindy Hyde-Smith saying that if consumers are upset over high beef prices, “you know you have so many proteins to choose from.”The video cuts to a man grilling burgers who says, “Pick another protein?

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.