News The Grammy Award-winning country musician wished the former homeland security secretary would let sleeping dogs lie. Kacey Musgraves performs during during the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival on April 18, 2026 in Calif. Scott Dudelson / Getty Images for Coachella Oct.

13, 2026, 1:24 PM EDT Country music singer Kacey Musgraves took aim at Kristi Noem on Monday night after the former homeland security secretary publicly criticized her for meeting with Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico at a recent concert. The Grammy Award-winning artist briefly entered the dog-eat-dog world of politics after Noem lambasted Talarico for attending her Dallas concert on Saturday. In a social media post, Talarico thanked Musgraves for having him, and the two were photographed together. “I’ll take @ellalangleymsic over Kacey Musgraves any day,” Noem, who is also the former governor of South Dakota, wrote Monday on X.

“And if I’m choosin’ Texas, I’ll take Ken Paxton over James Talarico.” In Noem’s post, she compared Musgraves to another country music artist, Ella Langley, who appears to have untagged herself. “I don’t think you have a dog in this fight but if you did you would have shot it,” Musgraves replied, referencing a story from Noem’s 2024 memoir in which she revealed she fatally shot her family dog, Cricket.

Noem wrote that she shot the dog, whom she described as “a trained assassin,” after it killed a group of chickens. Later that night, Talarico chimed in on the feud, posting another picture of him with Musgraves on X. “Don’t mess with Texas,” he wrote. Noem, who established a reputation for hard-line anti-immigration policies, served as Trump’s homeland security secretary until she was fired in March, shortly after intense public grilling by senators. Upon her ouster, Noem was appointed to the newly created position of the U.S. special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, and President Donald Trump replaced her with GOP Sen.

Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. Talarico, who said he recently took a brief break from the campaign trail because of the flu, faces off against the Trump-backed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has faced multiple scandals, in a high-stakes race in November. Erum Salam Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.