When masculinity becomes an election issue

This year's midterm congressional elections will be marked by a number of major issues, from the war with Iran, tariffs, inflation, immigration and taxes to healthcare.

However, the Associated Press agency points out that in several key election races, which could decide who will control Congress, another question looms: what image of a "real man" do the candidates want to offer voters?

It's a new chapter in the macho image politics that Donald Trump brought to American campaigns more than a decade ago, mocking Republican rivals and building his political performance on a display of strength and dominance. Today, some Democrats are also trying to respond with their own version of "masculinity," or at least to more confidently repel conservative attacks as they seek to return to power.

“Democratic voters want a candidate who will fight,” Beth Rheingold, an Emory University professor who studies gender and politics, told the AP. “And that is seen as a kind of masculine demand, a more masculine approach, especially in response to Trump,” she added.

In Michigan, Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed accused Republican rival Mike Rogers of having “beta energy” as they argued over their high school football accomplishments.

Republicans in Texas, a state known for its cowboy boots and flamboyant demeanor, have been disparaging Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico by calling him “Low T Talarico,” alluding to his low testosterone levels.

Talarico, who is 37 and running against 63-year-old Ken Paxton, dismissed the insult, saying: "I don't think men my age really worry about things like that."

Reingold points out that the gender debate usually revolves around how female candidates present themselves to the public.

"What's different about this election," she said, "is that male candidates have an even greater incentive to somehow highlight their masculinity."

Trump has redefined the political notion of power.

Emphasizing vitality and concealing weakness are nothing new in American politics, the American agency points out, recalling that Franklin Roosevelt also hid from the public his partial paralysis and the fact that he used a wheelchair. John F. Kennedy, the youngest president elected, liked to be photographed sailing and playing American football. He never spoke publicly about the debilitating back pain, a consequence of an old war injury, or about the medications he took to cope with it. Ronald Reagan, then the oldest president in American history, was often photographed on horseback, writes the AP.

Trump has offered a more belligerent version of that image. He has mocked opponents with nicknames like “Little Marco” for Marco Rubio, who is now his secretary of state, and “Jeb No Energy” for Jeb Bush, who has since retired from politics. During one debate in 2016, Trump even publicly defended the size of his genitals.

When he entered the Republican National Convention in 2024, James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" blared from the speakers. Days earlier, he had survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where, bloodied, he raised his fist and told supporters, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

In November of that year, Trump increased his support among male voters to 55 percent, compared to 51 percent when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, according to AP VoteCast data.

Arguments about football

Rogers, a former Republican congressman, recently ran a campaign ad claiming that Democrats want to allow “men to compete in women's sports.” He portrayed El-Sayed as too liberal for Michigan, recalling his own high school football days.

El-Sayed responded to him on social media over the weekend.

“Obviously your teammates didn’t choose you as captain,” he wrote. “If they did, you would have said so in the commercial. You probably had that beta energy back then too. I was the captain. In football. Wrestling. Lacrosse.”

In that social media exchange, Rogers didn't want to let El-Sayed have the last word.

“Nothing screams ‘alpha’ like a 41-year-old who is desperate to remind everyone that he was popular in high school,” Rogers wrote. “It seems like high school was his peak.”

El-Sayed often campaigns in tight black T-shirts and lifts weights in front of cameras. But he has also posted videos of himself singing and dancing, and has mocked conservative notions of masculinity.

“Being a man is not about how you look in the gym,” he said in an interview with progressive website Lever News. “It’s about how you treat your family. It’s about how you contribute to your community.”

A familiar pattern in Texas

The issue of masculinity emerged as a topic in Texas shortly after Talarico, a state legislator, won the Democratic Party nomination for the Senate.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who is not running for re-election this year, told Fox News that "if you were to make a list of 1.000 adjectives to describe this man, 'manly' would not be among them," adding that "a little bit of a breeze would blow him away."

Recently, a political action committee supporting Paxton aired an ad that partly addresses the issue of transgender people. It opens with a large, broad-chested man with a thick beard and a serious expression, his helmet scratched.

“This is Texas,” says a deep voice in the commercial.

“And this is not,” the voice continues, followed by a clip of Talarik saying that there are more than two biological sexes.

Paxton's team is counting on the personal attacks - and the political messages they carry - to sway voters in a state whose famous slogan is "Don't mess with Texas."

"When a party or group says a candidate is not manly, or not manly enough, they're not really talking about that candidate," Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, told the AP.

“It’s a way to convey that this candidate is connected to groups and individuals who have non-traditional views about the roles of men and women in society,” Blank continued, “and even about the very definition of male and female.”

Talarico largely dismisses the insults, saying they “do not address the needs of Texans” who want to be able to afford groceries, insurance and gas.

Yet, he simultaneously turns the debate about "what it means to be a real man" to his advantage, recalling his childhood and his adoptive father, Marko Talarik, who mowed the grass every Saturday - both in his own yard and in the yard of an elderly widow next door.

“He never talked about it. He just did it - because that's what a man does,” Talarico said during the campaign. “Call me old-fashioned, but a real man takes responsibility.”

He then uses the topic to allude to corruption allegations against Paxton, which he has denied.

"Real men serve others," adds Talariko. "Weak men serve themselves."