Interests of an 18-Year-Old

An 18-year-old voting for the first time in November 2026 leads with documented concerns: cost of college and student debt, climate change, housing affordability, gun violence (they grew up with active-shooter drills and were 10 during Uvalde), social media and mental health, jobs that pay enough to live on, reproductive freedom, LGBTQ acceptance, and whether democracy still works. Cornyn earns slightly more 18-year-old credit than Paxton does — BSCA's mental-health and under-21 background-check provisions are direct address to this cohort's stated gun-violence concern, and his RFMA vote provides federal marriage-recognition certainty for LGBTQ 18-year-olds — but on cost of college, climate, housing, and reproductive freedom, his record offers little this cohort says they want. Talarico's platform reads like a direct address to this cohort: housing affordability, gun safety (raise AR-style purchase age to 21), reproductive freedom, marijuana legalization, opposition to book bans, anti-billionaire framing, and a Christian seminarian who openly rejects Christian Nationalism. This remains one of the most lopsided age-bracket grades.