How They DifferCornyn · Talarico 2026
A no bullshit non-partisan comparison of political candidates
Aggregate score
Cornyn 5.1Talarico 6.1 T +1.0
Issues

LGBTQ / Social Issues

John Cornyn (R)

Cornyn voted for the Respect for Marriage Act (2022), one of 12 Senate Republicans to do so, providing federal recognition for both same-sex and interracial marriages — a vote Paxton has attacked him over repeatedly in the primary. He has otherwise voted for the Born Alive Survivors Protection Act, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and against the Equality Act, and maintains an NRLC 100% pro-life rating across decades of voting. He has not co-sponsored federal 'Don't Say Gay,' transgender-sports, or gender-affirming-care-prohibition legislation and has been measured on the Texas Children's Hospital gender-affirming care debate. He has not engaged the Trump IVF accessibility plan publicly. His record reads as standard institutional Republican social conservatism with a specific carve-out for civil-marriage recognition.

James Talarico (D)

Talarico would 'protect the legality of gay marriage and defend our LGBTQ+ neighbors from government overreach.' He would restore reproductive freedom by codifying Roe v. Wade and protect access to contraception and IVF federally. He used a procedural point of order on the Texas House floor to kill a statewide book ban that would have removed classics like Lonesome Dove and The Catcher in the Rye. He frames these as 'freedom' issues: 'you can't stand for freedom and control what we say, what we read, and what we do with our own bodies.' He opposes cancel culture 'whether it's from the left or the right' and explicitly defended Jimmy Kimmel after his September 2025 firing.

Sources

  1. Sen. John Cornyn, official Senate website and 2026 re-election campaign issues page, accessed May 2026 (cornyn.senate.gov; johncornyn.com). (full list)
  2. Talarico for Texas, official campaign issues pages (taxes, education, healthcare, immigration, social media/AI, freedom-family-faith, public-safety-justice, corruption-democracy, labor-business), accessed May 2026. (full list)
  3. National Right to Life Committee Cornyn voting record (100% NRLC lifetime); Susan B. Anthony List endorsement record; co-sponsor of Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act; floor speeches on Dobbs v. Jackson (June 2022). (full list)