Kacey Musgraves Fires Back at Kristi Noem’s Ella Langley Comparison by Bringing Up Puppy Scandal

Kristi Noem might have just messed with the wrong country singer.

A social media war between the fired Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, 54, and singer Kacey Musgraves, 38, broke out on Tuesday, October 12 over Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico.

Talarico, 37, returned to the campaign trail and attended one of the “High Horse” singer’s concerts this week, where he reportedly sat front row and gave her merch and a cowboy hat reading “Talarico for Texas.”

After the Democrat later shared a photo of them together from the show to social media with the caption, “Thank you for having me last night, Kacey Musgraves,” Noem — a staunch Republican — went in on the liberal country singer’s Talarico support.

“I’ll take @EllaLangleyMsic over Kacey Musgraves any day,” the South Dakota politician posted to X on Monday, October 12, referring to country singer Ella Langley. “And if I’m choosin’ Texas, I’ll take Ken Paxton over James Talarico.”

Hours later, Musgraves reposted Noem’s message and replied, “I don’t think you have a dog in this fight but if you did you would have shot it.”

Noem, of course, made headlines after she revealed in her memoir that she once shot her 14-month old dog, Cricket, who she deemed “untrainable.” Per ABC News, the story was included in an attempt to prove she could do anything “difficult, messy and ugly,” if it needed to be done — both in real life and her political career. It backfired bigtime and instead landed her in serious criticism.

So far, Noem has not responded to Musgraves’ comment. It also appears Langley — or someone in her team — untagged her from Noem’s original post.

Talarico, meanwhile, appeared to respond to the social media battle by sharing another photo of him with the “Golden Hour” singer on Monday night — simply adding, “Don’t mess with Texas.”