Analysis of his 2022 campaign spending shows his staff was chowing down at Domino’s Pizza in Austin days after he had declared his election run to be a purely vegan effort. And while it is possible to order a vegan meal from the national chain (cheese-free pizza anyone?), wouldn’t you pick one of the dozens of entirely meat-free restaurants in the city?

You are reading Washington Secrets, a guide to power and politics in D.C. and beyond. It is written by Rob Crilly, who you can reach at [email protected] with your comments, story tips, and suggestions. If a friend sent you this and you’d like to sign up, click here.

The latest twist in one of the more bizarre stories to come out of the Texas contest will pile more pressure on Talarico’s Senate run. Just who is he?

If Talarico and his campaign staff were meat eaters all along, it allows them to dismiss accusations from Republican opponent Ken Paxton and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that they are not proper Texans.

On the other hand, what does he stand for? Will he just promise anything to anyone in order to win their support?

It all goes back to an appearance before the Texas Humane Legislation Network in February 2022, when Talarico was running for reelection to the state legislature. Eating less meat, he said, was not just an issue of animal welfare but a way to fight climate change.

“I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign,” he said to applause. “So we are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses.”

He put his money where his mouth was that Saturday. He told his audience his team had eaten at Big Nonna’s. His expenses show a $126.33 check at the celebrated vegan pizza and ice cream parlor.

But a week later, they were spending $135.94 on “staff food” at Domino’s, which is very much not a local vegan restaurant.

Nor is East Tiger brewery and bakery, where they spent $482.59 for an event on March 8. Its menu lists no items as vegan.

The rest of the offending items are:

• Freebird’s World Burrito: $59.96 for staff food on Feb. 22. It offers vegan dishes but is not a “vegan business.”
• Ka-Prow Thai and Sushi Bistro: $65.21 and $41.51 for “staff food” on Feb. 23 and Feb. 28 that features fish and meat.
• Kerbey Lane Café: $131.55 on staff food. Again, there are vegan options, but it is not a purely vegan restaurant.
• Thundercloud Subs: $68.53, $77.80, and $34.34 for staff food on three occasions. The menu has no vegan options.

Was it another case of virtue signaling? Like when he accused white people of spreading the “virus” of racism? Or his awkward efforts to align his Christian faith with his progressive politics by suggesting that God had asked Mary for her consent as he made a point about bodily autonomy?

Either way, Paxton might have to rethink some of his attack lines.

“He’s a vegan who thinks God is nonbinary and that there’s actually six biological sexes,” the Republican attorney general said when he won his primary in May. “It’s hard to imagine someone more radical than that.”

The two are locked in a tight race, with Democrats wondering if Texas might actually fall their way.

Perhaps the more telling response came from the Talarico camp.

When they were buffeted by wild allegations that their man was a vegan, they came back hard. “James is not and has never been a vegan or vegetarian,” was the line they deployed.

But when Secrets enquired whether Talarico was a liar or perhaps muddled or perhaps the sort of politician who would promise anything to anyone in return for their vote, his campaign opted not to respond at all.

The lesson? In the red-meat world of Texas politics, it is safer to be a liar than a vegan.

What do voters actually think of data centers?

If you were to design the perfect strategy to reassure Americans that data centers are not to be feared but are actually the key to future prosperity and rising living standards, then this was not it.

A billionaire, whose own wealth hangs on the performance of social media and cryptocurrency companies, harangues voters to drop their opposition after spending the weekend hobnobbing with multimillionaire donors at his golf club.

“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,” Trump said. “If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.”

Focus group findings shared with Secrets show that things are not quite so simple. Concerns focus on who actually benefits from energy-guzzling data centers, and whether they are just another example of a tiny handful of powerful tech giants riding roughshod over everyone else.

“If they’re not giving anything to the community and all they’re getting is tax breaks to use our utilities and water, and they’re not bringing jobs except construction jobs, I’m not for it… They need to pay full price like I do,” Denise, a moderate from Des Moines, told our friends at J.L. Partners.

Scott, who describes himself as “somewhat left-wing”, had another idea in a state where agricultural run-off is blamed for accelerating cancer rates.

“My hometown of Sioux City has a water system that needs $500 million to fix,” he said. “You know, a town of 85,000 people isn’t ever gonna have $500 million to fix a water system that’s 100 years old. I said, ‘Get data centers on it. You’re on the Missouri River. Go get data centers to fund cleaning the Missouri River up, using that water, returning it back to the river.’ It’s things we can do with a little technological innovation and solve both problems.”

Trump doesn’t realize that, as things stand, voters think they will end up “backwards and poor,” even with data centers. They are the ones who have to put up with the things, but are skeptical that they will actually see any of the benefits. And that is the lesson for many people of the past few decades of economic growth that has left them behind, a lesson that propelled Trump to power.

The way to change that is to make sure that companies behind them are contributing to the local community, paying their fair share of taxes, maybe renovating the derelict building on Main Street, or yes, cleaning up the river.

Quote of the day

Remember when Alina Habba, on-off aide and spokeswoman to Donald Trump, plus short-lived acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, announced on social media that she wasn’t running for White House press secretary? And Secrets said that amounted pretty much to a declaration that she was definitely running? Remember?

We have developments.

During an interview with right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, she was asked if she could fill Karoline Leavitt’s shoes. She did not demur.

“If the president called me and asked me? Of course I would do it. Do I think I could do it? Absolutely. I feel that I kind of had done it before he was in the White House to some extent.”

She’s running.

Lunchtime reading

Trump’s shipping race with Xi goes nuclear: The start-up building nuclear ships for Donald Trump as the U.S. ramps up efforts to tackle Chinese dominance.

He brought a guillotine to D.C. He didn’t expect to get arrested: “People have hit me up for guillotine tattoos,” he said. “I feel a deep sense of gratitude that my message resonates with so many people.”