“You can tell Kacey Musgraves is a real Texan by the volume of her hair and how much she hates Ted Cruz,” tweeted Cat Cardenas. The writer/editor/photographer was in attendance during Kacey’s headlining set at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Sunday night and shared a video of Musgraves, 34, taking a shot at Sen. Ted Cruz. While performing her song “High Horse,” Musgraves worked the Texan Republican’s name into the lyrics, singing, “cause everyone knows someone who kills the buzz / every time they open their mouth — Ted Cruz!” As the audience cheered, Musgraves added, “I said what I said.”
you can tell @KaceyMusgraves is a real Texan by the volume of her hair and how much she hates Ted Cruz ❤️ pic.twitter.com/HNXbN0xjo3
— Cat Cardenas (@catrcardenas) October 10, 2022
The country singer has a history of taking a shot at the controversial politician. Cruz, 51, famously took his family on a trip to Cancún, Mexico, in February 2021 after a winter storm hit Texas, leaving residents without electricity, water, and heat. Though Cruz initially claimed he was dropping off his children, The New York Times published leaked texts between Sen. Cruz’s wife, Heidi Cruz, and some of their Houston neighbors. Mrs. Cruz complained that their house was “FREEZING,” she allegedly “invited others to join them at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancún, where they had stayed “many times.” In response to all this, Kacey Musgraves tweeted, “*makes ‘CRUZIN FOR A BRUZIN’ tees* donates profits to Texans in need.” She later tweeted, “Link coming soon. Don’t RUN OFF anywhere…” and “Texas is cold, I can be cold.
*makes “CRUZIN FOR A BRUZIN” tees
* donates profits to Texans in need— K A C E Y (@KaceyMusgraves) February 18, 2021
Texas is cold, I can be cold. https://t.co/TglB3AsEkt
— K A C E Y (@KaceyMusgraves) February 19, 2021
Musgraves’s shade comes roughly a week after Harry Styles dipped his toe into Texas politics. While performing at the Moody Center in Austin, the “As It Was” singer decided to throw his support behind Beto O’Rourke, who is currently running to unseat Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in the upcoming election. While playing his guitar, Harry pointed to the “Beto For Texas” sticker he placed on the instrument. O’Rourke, 50, was in attendance that night, and Styles pointed out the politician before calling him a “lovely, lovely man.”
O’Rourke has been hammering Abbot over gun violence – he famously crashed Gov. Abbot’s press conference following the massacre at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde – and Abbot’s campaign to strip bodily autonomy away from women by outlawing abortion after six weeks.
However, it’s been an uphill battle for Beto. Though O’Rourke came close to defeating Ted Cruz in the 2018 Senate race, Newsweek points out that Gov. Abbot has led O’Rourke “in every Texas poll this year.” Though Abbot has led the polls, Newsweek also noted that O’Rourke has been able to lessen that lead down to single digits.