Kacey Musgraves has never been shy about politics, and on Monday she proved it again. Asked, in effect, to choose between herself and a rival country star by former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Texas singer skipped the comparison entirely and went straight for the one story Noem has never been able to shake: the dog she wrote about shooting.
“I don’t think you have a dog in this fight but if you did you would have shot it,” Musgraves wrote on X on Monday, October 12, quote-posting Noem’s jab. Within hours the line was everywhere, from Parade to TMZ, and her replies filled with fans calling it the clapback of the year.
How a Dallas concert turned into a feud
The fight started at a concert, not a campaign rally. On Saturday, October 10, Musgraves brought her Middle of Nowhere arena tour to the American Airlines Center in Dallas. James Talarico, the Democratic candidate in Texas’ U.S. Senate race, was there. TheWrap reports that Musgraves brought him on stage, and that it was one of his first public appearances after nearly two weeks off the campaign trail through illness. The Nerd Stash’s account is more modest, saying only that Talarico attended the show and afterwards posted a photo with Musgraves thanking her for having him.
Either way, the photo traveled, and Noem picked it up. Sharing an image of the singer and the candidate, she wrote that she would “take Ella Langley over Kacey Musgraves any day,” and added that if she was “choosin’ Texas,” she would take Ken Paxton over Talarico.
That second line was a deliberate nod. “Choosin’ Texas” is Ella Langley’s breakout single, a song that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this year and spent 20 weeks at the top. Noem was trying to recruit country music’s newest star to her side of the argument. It didn’t land the way she hoped. Commenters were quick to point out that Langley is from Alabama, not Texas, and The Nerd Stash notes that Langley or her team appeared to remove their tag from Noem’s post. Langley has not commented publicly, and nothing suggests she wanted to be part of the exchange.
Why the dog line cut so deep
Musgraves’ reply works because everyone knows exactly what it refers to. In her 2024 memoir No Going Back, Noem described shooting her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, Cricket, in a gravel pit after deciding the dog was “untrainable.” TheWrap notes that the same book recounted shooting a family goat. The passage caused an uproar on publication, across party lines, and it is widely seen as having damaged Noem’s standing at the time.
Noem’s profile has shifted a great deal since. She served as governor of South Dakota from 2019 to 2025 and then as Secretary of Homeland Security, a role she no longer holds. Parade reports that she is also divorcing her husband of 34 years, Bryon Noem, after a filing made in April became public in late September. As of Tuesday morning, none of the outlets covering the exchange had reported any further response from Noem.
The race behind the row
For all the jokes, there is a serious contest underneath this. Texas’ Senate race pits Talarico, a state legislator and former teacher, against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has Donald Trump’s endorsement. Paxton was impeached by the Texas House in 2023 and later acquitted by the state Senate. TheWrap describes recent polling as tight, with Talarico narrowly ahead, and The Nerd Stash cites a poll reported by Variety showing Talarico on 47.1% to Paxton’s 43.6%. The midterm vote is now only weeks away.
Talarico has also become an unlikely draw in entertainment circles. His appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! is, according to TheWrap, the show’s second most-viewed video of 2026. And Musgraves is not the first big country name to back him. Willie Nelson endorsed him last week, and at 93 he made headlines for picking a side in a race that national Republicans had once considered safe.
Musgraves’ own politics are no secret. Parade describes her as a longtime outspoken advocate for progressive causes, and she has been criticized by conservative country figures before. Monday’s post was not a change of direction so much as a sharper example of something her fans already knew about her.
What happens next
Both singers are still on the road, so there is plenty of room for this to escalate or fade. Musgraves’ Middle of Nowhere tour runs through the fall, Langley is touring too, and the Texas election is weeks off. If Noem replies, or if Langley decides to say something about being pulled into it, the story will have a second round.
For now, the scoreboard looks one-sided. Noem opened with a comparison between two singers and a dig at a candidate. Musgraves answered with a single sentence that reminded millions of people of the most damaging chapter in Noem’s own book.
