Country singer Kacey Musgraves took a personal shot at Kristi Noem after the former Homeland Security secretary criticized the singer while backing Republican Ken Paxton in the Texas U.S. Senate race. The online exchange began after Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico attended one of Musgraves’ concerts and publicly thanked her for hosting him. Noem responded by backing Paxton and saying she preferred country star Ella Langley over Musgraves. Musgraves then invoked an account from Noem’s 2024 memoir involving an aggressive hunting dog.
Talarico attended a stop on Musgraves’ “Middle of Nowhere” tour at the American Airlines Center in Dallas over the weekend. He posted photographs from the event, including one showing Musgraves taking a bedazzled selfie with him. The appearance came as Talarico campaigns against Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas. Noem, a former South Dakota governor who now serves as U.S. special envoy to the Shield of the Americas, responded to the campaign-season concert appearance on X.
“Thank you for having me last night, @KaceyMusgraves!” Talarico wrote alongside the photographs. Noem shared a screenshot of his post and contrasted Musgraves with Langley, the singer behind the hit song “Choosin’ Texas.” She used the song’s title to make her preference in the Senate contest clear. Her message put the two country singers alongside the two candidates in a music-and-politics comparison.
As Variety reported, Noem wrote, “I’ll take @ellalangleymsic over Kacey Musgraves any day.” She continued, “And if I’m choosin’ Texas, I’ll take Ken Paxton over James Talarico.” The second line referenced Langley’s record-setting country hit while giving Paxton an endorsement in his race against the Democrat.
Musgraves responded by quote-posting Noem’s message and reaching back to an incident Noem described in her memoir. “I don’t think you have a dog in this fight but if you did you would have shot it,” Musgraves wrote. Langley appeared to use X’s “Leave this conversation” feature to remove her account from Noem’s post. Variety reported that Noem hadn’t posted another response to Musgraves as of the outlet’s publication.
Musgraves’ remark referred to Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer Noem had attempted to train for pheasant hunting. Noem wrote in “No Going Back” that Cricket disrupted a hunt, escaped from her truck, attacked a neighbor’s chickens and “whipped around to bite” her after she grabbed the dog’s collar. She concluded that Cricket was dangerous and “untrainable,” leading her to put the animal down in a gravel pit on her property. “It was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done,” Noem wrote.
Noem’s account drew criticism and national press coverage when excerpts from the memoir appeared in 2024. The episode was repeatedly used against her while she was being discussed as a possible running mate for President Donald Trump. Trump later appointed Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security after beginning his second term, and she served in that position until March 2026. She subsequently became the administration’s special envoy to the Shield of the Americas.
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Musgraves has frequently promoted liberal political causes from the stage. Earlier in 2026, she asked concertgoers to donate to the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights as her “birthday wish.” “It’s a wonderful organization, and they help give aid — legal aid — and money to children whose parents have been deported unfairly,” Musgraves told the audience. OutKick host Tomi Lahren challenged the premise behind the appeal, asking, “What is an unfair deportation?”