Cuban, Mark
1958–

Cuban — Dallas-based, Cost Plus Drugs founder, Shark Tank investor — has built a distinctive public-values identity around healthcare-pricing transparency, pro-business pragmatism, and rich-people-should-pay-more-taxes honesty. Cuban has been publicly critical of Trump and the GOP populist turn, which gives Cornyn — the institutional Republican who has been measured in opposing Trump's worst excesses — more credit than Paxton receives. But on the core Cuban issue of healthcare-pricing transparency, Cornyn's anti-prescription-drug-price-negotiation framework, anti-Medicare-expansion votes, and opposition to PBM reform run directly against the Cost Plus Drugs framework Cuban built his post-NBA reputation on. Talarico would land well with Cuban on healthcare pricing, anti-corruption, small business support, and Texas-Democratic-with-national-appeal framing; Cuban would push back on the $15 federal minimum wage and on aggressive antitrust expansion that he sees as harmful to startup ecosystems. The Texas-business-leader edge here is meaningful — this is the most relevant business-grader for a Texas race.