Good Monday Austin:

I went to see Ted Cruz at town hall meetings this weekend. Good crowds and Cruz was in fine form.

The first event was at Baker Boys BBQ in Gonzales. The second was at Schobel’s Restaurant in Columbus.

When I arrived at the Columbus event there were four folks from PETA — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — out in front holding signs. I suppose you could call them protesters or demonstrators, but their demeanor was extraordinarily pleasant and their signs weren’t anti-anything. They were simply pro-tofu.

I knew what was up.

Cruz had recently suggested that out-of-state liberals were pouring money into Beto O’Rourke’s Senate campaign because they want to impose California values — including tofu consumption — on Texas.

I approached and introduced myself. Dani Alexander, a 31-year-old PETA volunteer from Houston, who was the spokeswoman for the group, said she had a prepared statement, which she read to me.

We are here passing out free barbecue tofu samples after Sen. Cruz’s snipe about soy earlier this week. He said some things about tofu being liberal, but tofu’s actually bipartisan. PETA is confident that once Sen. Cruz gets a taste of how delicious tofu can be he will want to see tofu in every Texas pot.

Tofu’s the most versatile food on the planet and it’s grown right here in the Lone Star State. According to the USDA, soy production in the Lone Star State was valued at $61 million last year and as more and more people realize that eating meat is completely unnecessary and with the ever-growing list of vegan-friendly restaurants and businesses, it is no surprise the vegan eating in the U.S. has skyrocketed by 600 percent in the last three years alone.

Sen. Cruz can joke all he wants but life for animals on factory farms is no laughing matter. Cows, pigs, chickens, fish and other animals used for food feel pain just like our dogs and cats yet nearly all of the millions of them killed for food every year in the U.S. are raised on crowded, filthy factory farms where they are subjected to extreme crowding, a terrifying trip to the slaughterhouse and a violent, painful death.

Tofu can be baked, fried, scrambled, marinated or sautéed. And it’s packed with high-quality protein without the artery-clogging cholesterol and saturated fat of meat, eggs and dairy. Americans are horrified to learn that pigs, cows, chickens and other animals are crammed into filthy sheds and tiny cages, routinely mutilated with no painkillers and having their throats slit while fully conscious

We can all help put an end to this cruelty simply by choosing tofu and other healthy, delicious vegan foods. He can visit PETA.org to order a free vegan starter kit and see how easy it is to leave animals off of your plate.

They then cheerfully offered me a little specimen cup of barbecued tofu, which I politely declined, because I don’t really like tofu.

My daughter is a vegan. I admire vegans and vegetarians. I am an omnivore who recognizes — thanks in part to a report my daughter did in high school on factory farming — that if one wants to continue to eat and enjoy meat, it is best not to interrogate too deeply how a lot of that meat got to your table.

i eat meat, but i wouldn't be surprised if our descendants see factory farming as our most obvious and deep-set moral failing, and it's wild to me that the people whose job it is to oppose it suck at it this bad and this powerfully https://t.co/I1irpkylXw

— chris hooks (@cd_hooks) September 16, 2018

But I also guess I believe that eating other animals is the way of the world and is such a source of pleasure that I’m OK with that being an important part of my diet. And while I generally eschew tofu (it’s edible surrounded by better stuff), I refrain from scorning or mocking those for whom it is integral to a vegetarian or vegan diet. And I’m assuming Cruz shows the same respect at home, where his wife, who grew up Seventh Day Adventist, maintains the vegetarian diet preferred by church members, even though she now worships with her husband as a Baptist.

As Ellen White, co-founder of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, put it: “The intellectual, the moral, and the physical powers are depreciated by the habitual use of flesh meats. Meat eating deranges the system, beclouds the intellect, and blunts the moral sensibilities. We say to you, dear brother and sister, your safest course is to let meat alone.”

This is what Cruz had said about tofu precisely a week earlier on Sept. 8 in Katy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naleMM0-ndA&w=634&h=396]

As y’all know, it’s election season. We are 59 days out from election day, and we got a fight on our hands. The extreme left — they’re angry, they’re energized, and they hate the president. And I gotta tell you, that’s dangerous. We underestimate that level of fury and rage — we underestimate that at our peril. It means two things. No. 1, we are seeing tens of millions of dollars flooding into the state of Texas from liberals all over the country who desperately want to turn the state of Texas blue [boos]. They want us to be just like California [boos]. Right down to tofu and silicon and dyed hair. And by the way, I married me a California vegetarian. She’s wonderful, but I brought her to the great state of Texas. [applause].

But the second thing it means is, come election day, come November, we are going to see record-setting Democratic turnout here. Now, here’s the good news. This is Texas, and in Texas there are a whole lot more conservatives than there are liberals [applause]. So politically, our tasks the next 59 days is simple. This election comes down to one word: turnout, turnout, turnout, turnout. Our biggest danger is complacency. Look, I don’t think there’s a great risk that a bunch of Texas conservatives are suddenly going to wake up and vote Democrat, but the danger is too many of us might stay home, that we might feel the economy’s booming, work is going well, we’re focused on our job and our family and our church and going to the ballgame, and you just don’t make it to the polls to vote. That’s how we lose the state of Texas. And I’m here today to tell you, that will not happen, not on our watch.

In Gonzales and Columbus, Cruz struck the same theme, opening his remarks at each stop with, “God bless Texas.”

In Columbus, he continued:

We welcome everyone. Thank you for coming out. God bless. We’re thrilled to see you.

I got to say, when I got here someone told me that even PETA was protesting and giving out barbecued tofu, so I got to say, they summed up the entire election: If Texas elects a Democrat, they’re going to ban barbecue across the state of Texas.

You want to talk about an issue to mobilize the people, and I’m talking everybody.

So I want to thank PETA and I do want to tell PETA you’re going to have to disclose to the FEC that by coming and protesting and giving away tofu, that you have given an in-kind contribution to my campaign by demonstrating just how bad things can get. (Right, right)

“PETA outside protesting with barbecued tofu. Banning bb-q is a great way way to motivate voters in Texas, so I thank PETA for helping my campaign.”