Ted Cruz Just Can't Let Go of His Obsession With Dylan Mulvaney

Ted Cruz can’t stop obsessing over Dylan Mulvaney.

The Republican U.S. senator from Texas, like many conservatives, was outraged when Mulvaney, a transgender social media star, participated in a marketing campaign for Bud Light beer last spring. Anti-trans activists called for a boycott of the product, some executives at parent company Anheuser-Busch were ousted, and right-wing celebrities acted out in a variety of ways, such as the video of Kid Rock shooting up cans of the beer.

The controversy erupted in April when Mulvaney celebrated the anniversary of her transition by posting an Instagram video showing her with a personalized can of Bud Light, but now it’s ceased making headlines — mostly. Cruz, however, just can’t let go.

In his latest action, he is demanding information from Captiv8, the marketing agency that connected Bud Light and Mulvaney, about how the campaign came to be. This was after he called for the beer industry to investigate whether the Mulvaney promotion was designed to appeal to people who are under the legal drinking age. So he’s acting like he’s most concerned with underage drinking, but given that he’s one of the most anti-LGBTQ+ politicians out there, could it be that he just doesn’t like trans people?

In May, Cruz and right-wing Senate colleague Marsha Blackburn wrote to Brendan Whitworth, who is both CEO of Anheuser-Busch and chairman of the Beer Institute, a trade association and self-regulatory body for brewers, urging an end to the Mulvaney partnership and an investigation into whether the campaign violated the institute’s guidelines against marketing to underage consumers. They claimed their evidence submitted with the letter showed that “Dylan Mulvaney’s audience skews significantly younger than the legal drinking age.”

Cruz followed up in June with a 13-page memo to the Beer Institute’s Code Compliance Review Board, which he said “reveals new evidence and examples of how Mulvaney’s persona is meant to appeal to minors.”

The compliance board conducted the investigation as requested and found there was no violation. “There is absolutely nothing in the Mulvaney Instagram posts in question that would ‘have a special attractiveness’ to people below the legal drinking age,” the board wrote in July. Also, the decision noted, Anheuser-Busch hired CreatorIQ, an independent marketing firm, to determine the composition of Mulvaney’s Instagram audience before the Anheuser-Busch post. The firm found that 80 percent of the audience was 21 or older, and advertising campaigns are considered compliant with the code if at least 73.6 percent of the targeted audience is of age. The board has three members; two endorsed the decision and the third dissented.

Cruz isn’t satisfied. In his November 20 letter to Captiv8 CEO Krishna Subramanian, he cited the dissent from compliance board member Paul Summers. Summers, Cruz wrote, “agreed that Anheuser-Busch had violated the Code because it knew or should have known that Mulvaney primarily appeals to persons below the legal drinking age, especially ‘young teens and girls.’”

“Unfortunately, CCRB failed to investigate the origins of the Bud Light-Mulvaney marketing partnership and advanced a misleading narrative about the brewer’s vetting process,” Cruz continued. “Captiv8 is mentioned nowhere in CCRB’s opinion — a significant omission given that your company reportedly ‘brokered’ the deal.”

He then demanded to know more about Captiv8’s role in the partnership, including whether it’s “possible for a brand with access to Captiv8’s platform to search for an influencer of a particular (1) sexual orientation or (2) gender identity.” He asked for all documents or communications related to the Mulvaney promotion as well.

Cruz sent the letter in his role as ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee. In House and Senate committees, the chairman is drawn from the majority party in the chamber, while the ranking member is the top member from the minority party — in the current Senate, Republicans are in the minority.

Cruz’s obsession with the Bud Light campaign goes against a long-held tenet of conservatism — that corporations should be able to conduct their business however they wish, with as little government interference as possible. But apparently that goes out the window when companies try to be LGBTQ-inclusive.

His anti-LGBTQ+ record is long and strong. He’s received mostly zeroes on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard, and he’s said the Supreme Court should overturn its marriage equality decision. This is even though one of his daughters has come out as bisexual.

Specifically targeting trans people, he’s said they shouldn’t have access to the restrooms and sports teams matching their gender identity. Just this week he introduced a bill that would prohibit federal funds from being used to enforce policies requiring federal employees to use preferred pronouns or names other than an individual’s legal name. However, with Democratic control of the Senate, it’s likely to go nowhere.

He also has a cameo appearance in an anti-trans film, Lady Ballers, a “comedy” about a male basketball team whose members declare they’re women in order to compete against female teams. Produced by The Daily Wire, a right-wing media outlet, it’s due to be released Friday on the DailyWire+ streaming platform. And he has a new book out, Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America, and says he may again seek the Republican presidential nomination, as he did in 2016.