Why is 'vegan' suddenly being used as a slur? | Emma Beddington

US republicans are tarnishing their plant-eating opponents at every opportunity. Yet vegans are perfectly suited to hold power – let me count the ways Cool news, fellow soy boys and girls – we’ve been promoted from feeble, tofu-eating wokerati to dangerous radicals unfit for public office. Politico reports that US Republicans have started throwing “vegan” around as a tactic to tarnish their political opponents. “He’s a vegan,” Trump warned of Democratic Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico in May, while Talarico’s opponent, state attorney-general Ken Paxton, is trying to get the nickname “Tofu Talarico” to stick. Paxton also called him “a vegan who thinks God is non-binary”, which I find hilarious as a political put-down – give the man a Netflix special. (Sidenote: I investigated, and according to the Catholic catechism, God is “neither man nor woman”.) Republicans have also been digging up past pro-plant-based statements from Colorado congressional candidate Manny Rutinel: a campaign committee press secretary described him on X as “a far-left vegan activist who wants to end animal agriculture”, posting an old pic of Rutinel bare-chested and

Aug 30, 2026 → Aug 30, 2026