Republicans are betting that a single hormone can decide the midterms. The party is pushing a wave of policies around testosterone, from mandatory screenings for military service members to bans on the hormone for young trans people. The strategy is simple: package TRT as a masculine tonic, then use it to attack opponents as weak or unnatural.
The move is being tested in Texas, where Ken Paxton is running for a Senate seat that could determine control of Washington. Paxton’s campaign ads call his Democratic challenger James Talarico “too low-T for Texas.” Trump’s most loyal adviser, Stephen Miller, went further, calling Talarico the “first transgender Senate candidate” despite Talarico being a cisgendered heterosexual man.
“I am seeing a lot of ‘sciencewashing’ of regressive beliefs.”
Jonathan Jarry, a science communicator working at McGill University’s office for science and society who co-hosts The Body of Evidence, described the trend bluntly. He said “Everything has been politicized in the United States. Vaccines are liberal and TRT is Maga. The needle is apolitical but the content of the syringe is decided by who you vote for.”
The Paxton Ad Campaign
Paxton’s ads target Talarico directly. The message is that Talarico lacks the virility needed for public office. The implication is that Talarico is unfit for the job because his testosterone levels are insufficient.
The Paxton campaign has made the ad a central part of its effort to unseat Talarico in a race that could determine which party controls the Senate. The campaign’s strategy rests on two pillars: first, the idea that TRT is a legitimate medical treatment; and second, the assumption that voters will see low testosterone as a sign of weakness.
Kennedy’s FDA Announcement
Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr announced in June that the FDA was removing a limitation on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). He stated that its safety and effectiveness “have not been established.”
The move opens the door for wider use of the hormone. Testosterone prescriptions have already surged. Nearly 12m testosterone prescriptions were dispensed in 2025, up from fewer than 1m in 2000.
Hegseth’s Screening Policy
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth followed Kennedy’s announcement with his own. He announced that testosterone screening would be compulsory for military service members over the age of 30, and voluntary screening would be offered for all members.
Hegseth framed the policy as a health measure aimed at “restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities, protecting your longevity, and ensuring you have the biological foundation required to sustain the fight.”
He also renamed his department the “Department of War,” saying the name reflects a shift in mission from “defense” to “lethality, lethality, lethality.” In his announcement video, Hegseth promised to “untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill.”
On a recent campaign stop in Austin, Hegseth said: “We’re reminding our warriors that their sole purpose is to be the most lethal fighting force on the planet. Full stop. We’re not here to do social engineering, or social justice, or gender-bending, or DEI, or dudes and dresses.”
The Trans Youth Ban Push
While Republicans are making testosterone easier to prescribe for adults, they are also pushing bans on it for young trans people. Across the country, Republicans are trying to criminalize providing testosterone for trans youth, describing it as “mutilation.”
Washington state Republicans are pushing a ballot measure to test every school-age girl who plays sports to check their testosterone levels aren’t too high.
The contradiction is stark. The party wants to boost adult male testosterone while policing it in children.
Hegseth’s Record on Women
Hegseth’s Pentagon has overseen a sharp decline in the promotion of high-ranking women since he became secretary. Such appointments are at a 20-year low.
In his 2024 book The War on Warriors, Hegseth wrote: “Dads push us to take risks, moms put the training wheels on our bikes. We need moms. But not in the military, especially in combat units.”
His campaign rhetoric echoes that book. On the US’s most popular cable news show, The Five, host Jesse Watters heard the dogwhistle and gleefully predicted a backlash against the “High-T department of war.”
Paxton’s Political Calculus
The Texas Senate race is a key battleground. Paxton is running for a seat that could determine control of Washington. The “low-T” ads are a central part of his effort to unseat Talarico.
The strategy is straightforward: question Talarico’s manhood and tie his candidacy to weakness. Paxton is betting that voters will respond to the ad’s core message — that Talarico is unfit for public office because his testosterone levels are insufficient.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs neither Paxton nor Talarico on this matter and instead backs citizens making their own health choices free from government screening mandates or bans, whether written by Republicans or Democrats. Paxton’s “low-T” ads and Hegseth’s screening orders are attempts to control how people live through medicine, and the paper opposes such control wherever it comes from.
What makes this clear is the sheer scope of it. One party is pushing adult men to take more testosterone while pushing bans on the same hormone for children. That is not a coherent position, and the paper does not endorse either side of it.
Instead, the paper wants citizens to decide for themselves about their own bodies without Washington writing those decisions for them. The reader should watch for any attempt by any party to turn medical choices into political ones, whether through ads like Paxton’s or through mandates like Hegseth’s.
Source material: “Are you man enough? Republicans bet on ‘virile, brawny’ testosterone to juice the midterms,” The Guardian.
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