Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who has championed right-wing attacks on Bud Light parent Anheuser-Busch InBev for its marketing partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, had a much cozier tie-up with the beer giant a few years ago.
Cruz, who on Tuesday alleged that AB InBev was “marketing beer to children,” appeared to have recruited one of his daughters to help peddle beer for Anheuser-Busch four years ago.
In a September 2019 Twitter post (now X) shared by Mediaite, Cruz wrote that he had “teamed up” with the company to brew an IPA and said his then-11-year-old daughter Caroline would help.
“It’s made with grapefruit from the valleys of TX & my daughter Caroline helped me come up with the awesome name: Ale-vengers IPA. #DontMessWithTexas,” Cruz wrote at the time.
Cruz, who worked with the company’s Houston brewery on the drink for the Anheuser-Busch Brew Across America beer festival, also shared pictures of himself drinking the IPA.
″...I gotta tell y’all, it tastes a lot like the sweet taste of victory! #BrewDemocracy,” wrote Cruz.
Cruz launched a Senate probe into the company after its right-wing backlash-causing Dylan Mulvaney partnership. He wrote in a letter to AB InBev CEO Michel Doukeris on Tuesday that the company’s failure to produce documents Republicans demanded was an “unacceptable” and “blatant disregard” of congressional oversight.
“The level of cooperation the Committee receives will bear significantly on my assessment of whether this is part of a broader problem across the Anheuser-Busch InBev product line and whether changes to federal law are necessary to prohibit Anheuser-Busch InBev from marketing beer to children,” Cruz wrote in the letter.
Meanwhile, the Bud Light backlash that sank sales earlier this year appears to be easing. Deutsche Bank on Wednesday said Bud Light has shown “substantive signs of progress” after dropping from its spot as the bestselling beer in the U.S.
The bank analysis said the number of people “very unlikely to buy the brand” had dropped from 18% to 3%.