- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz opened an investigation into Bud Light's partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
- Meanwhile, Texas is grappling with a migration crisis and a severe housing crisis.
Texas is facing a laundry list of crises: housing, immigration, and weather, among others.
So, naturally, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is opening an investigation into Bud Light.
Social conservatives across the country continue to clutch their pearls over Bud Light's partnership with influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a 26-year-old transgender activist who has shaken the far-right's perception of reality by existing in the open.
The company's partnership with Mulvaney led to right-wing calls for a boycott of Bud Light, which has impacted sales at its parent company, Anheuser-Busch. The latter reported a 23% drop in sales for the last week of April compared to the previous year, CBS News reported.
Together with Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Cruz sent a letter to the beer industry's regulatory body, the Beer Institute, inquiring whether Anheuser-Busch's partnership with Mulvaney "violates the Beer Institute's guidelines prohibiting marketing to underage individuals."
"The Beer Institute must examine whether your company violated the Beer Institute's Advertising/Marketing Code and Buying Guidelines prohibiting marketing to individuals younger than the legal drinking age," the letter said, claiming that "Mulvaney's audience skews significantly younger than the legal drinking age."
To avoid an investigation, Cruz and Blackburn offered Anheuser-Busch the option to "publicly sever its relationship with Dylan Mulvaney, publicly apologize to the American people for marketing alcoholic beverages to minors, and direct Dylan Mulvaney to remove any Anheuser-Busch content" from her social media platforms, they wrote in the letter.
The letter, which misgendered Mulvaney throughout, also seeks documents and information on how "Anheuser-Busch vets its partnerships and how Anheuser-Busch failed in assessing the propriety of a partnership with Dylan Mulvaney."
Meanwhile, in Cruz' home state of Texas:
Following the expiration of Title 42, the fates of thousands of immigrants are up in the air as politicians on both sides of the aisle play hot potato by busing them to different cities.
The state faces an urgent housing and affordability crisis. There are just 25 available rental units for every 100 low-income households, according to The Texas Tribune.
Texas is also grappling with a series of deadly extreme weather events. In 2022, at least 279 people in Texas died from extreme heat, and the year before that, 246 Texans died from a brutal winter freeze. And Texas farmers are bracing for another growing season beset by a multi-year drought.
Texas is also the epicenter of gun violence. It is the site of 5 of the 10 deadliest shootings in US history.
Beer marketing, however — thanks to Cruz — has all the attention of the state's top leaders in Washington.