Jesus of the Gospels
c. 4 BCE–c. 30 CE

Five Gospel passages anchor the test: Matthew 25:31-46 (care for the hungry, sick, and stranger), Matthew 6:1-18 (refusal of piety practiced for public display), Luke 12:13-21 (warning against wealth-hoarding), Luke 1:39-45 (the traditional reading on the moral status of unborn life), and Mark 12:13-17 (a clean line between church and state). Paxton's record runs against four of these five: refusing Medicaid expansion in the state with the highest uninsured rate and leading DACA litigation against the stranger (Matt 25), Ten Commandments mandates alongside securities-fraud and adultery allegations (Matt 6 and Luke 12 at once), and the Annunciation House investigation (Matt 25 and Mark 12). His abortion stance earns Luke 1 credit. Cornyn earns more Jesus credit on personal conduct and on the absence of religious-minority litigation, and his Respect for Marriage Act vote can be read as the kind of measured pluralism Jesus modeled with the Samaritan woman. But his ACA repeal votes hit the same Matthew 25 framework Paxton's anti-Medicaid posture violates. Cornyn is the cleaner-record candidate; neither is an embrace of the Gospel social ethic.