The largest federation of unions in the U.S.: pro-collective-bargaining, pro-$15-minimum-wage, pro-PRO Act, pro-trade-with-labor-standards, pro-immigration with worker protections, pro-Medicare-for-All or robust public option, pro-prescription-drug-price-negotiation. Both candidates are anti-union to the core. Cornyn earns marginally more AFL-CIO credit on the free-trade-with-allied-labor-standards framework (USMCA included labor side agreements the AFL-CIO grudgingly accepted) and on the CHIPS Act manufacturing-investment framework AFL-CIO supported. Paxton flunks essentially every AFL-CIO plank: opposed federal overtime rules, sued over NLRB rulings, backed right-to-work expansion.
Sources
- Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, official campaign issues page, accessed May 2026. (full list)
- Sen. John Cornyn, official Senate website and 2026 re-election campaign issues page, accessed May 2026 (cornyn.senate.gov; johncornyn.com). (full list)
- Texas Attorney General, multistate ATF lawsuits on private firearm sales (May 2024) and pistol stabilizing braces (Feb. 2023). (full list)
- Cornyn votes on USMCA (January 2020); Senate Finance Committee record on free-trade agreements; Cornyn statements on Trump-era tariffs (2018-2026) including measured opposition to broad agricultural tariffs harming Texas exporters. (full list)