The Chicks brought Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico onstage during their concert at San Antonio’s Majestic Theater on Saturday, according to Breitbart News. The trio β singer Natalie Maines and bandmates Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire β are in the midst of an anniversary tour, and the San Antonio stop included a detour into statewide politics.
Talarico’s opening line to the crowd leaned on the band’s home-state roots: “I’m proud the Chicks are from Texas,” he said, per Breitbart. He went on to describe the group as an example of “Texas excellence” and told the audience, “When you have a voice, you have a responsibility to use it.”
A nod to 2003
The appearance carried an obvious historical echo. In 2003, Maines told a London audience that the band was ashamed that then-President George W. Bush was from Texas β a remark that set off a sustained backlash and, as Breitbart put it, largely ended the group’s run atop the country charts at the time. Talarico’s line about Texas pride appeared to riff on that episode, flipping the old controversy into a point of celebration.
The band has since dropped “Dixie” from its name, a change Breitbart characterized as a disavowal of Southern history. The outlet also described Talarico in pointed terms, calling him a “radical, left-wing candidate.”
Maines and Trump, round two
The onstage moment lands amid a fresh round of attention on Maines. Breitbart reported that last week President Trump blasted the singer after she revived her criticism of Bush while opening the group’s “Taking the Long Way” anniversary tour in New York City. According to the outlet, Maines said she would “never” abide by the “shut up and sing” demands of her critics.
“We thought that was the worst it could get,” Maines said of the 2003 fallout, according to Breitbart’s Oct. 15 report. “Now I’d give George Bush a big wet kiss, ’cause now we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from the United States.” Maines is 52.
The White House responded sharply, telling Fox News β as cited by Breitbart β that “Natalie Maines is a despicable nobody who clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted her peanut-sized brain.”
Music and politics, again
For a band whose defining public moment came when a performer’s political aside collided with the country music establishment, Saturday’s invitation reads as a deliberate bookend. Talarico, running for the Senate in a state the Chicks have long called home, got a stage and a microphone in front of a friendly crowd; the band got a candidate willing to frame its history of controversy as a virtue rather than a liability.
The San Antonio appearance is the latest sign that the 2003 episode remains a live reference point in both music and politics β invoked by the band, by its critics, and now by a candidate borrowing its language. Whether the moment moves votes in a statewide Texas race is another question, but it gave the Majestic Theater crowd a political cameo in the middle of a concert tour built around the very album that followed the original firestorm.
The Chicks’ anniversary tour continues; Talarico’s Senate campaign does too.
Source: www.breitbart.com β https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2026/10/20/former-country-band-the-chicks-bring-on-stage-texas-dem-senate-candidate-james-talarico/