How They DifferPaxton · Talarico 2026
A no bullshit non-partisan comparison of political candidates
Aggregate score
Paxton 2.7Talarico 6.1 T +3.4
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Scoring · Institutions & organizations

ACLU

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Founded 1920, the ACLU is a civil-liberties absolutist on free speech, church-state separation, criminal-justice reform, immigrants' rights, anti-surveillance, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and against the death penalty. Not a gun-control group — historically skeptical of expanded background checks on due-process grounds. Paxton fails most of the framework; Talarico aligns on most but loses ground on gun safety and content-moderation regulation.

Paxton
2
Talarico
7
Margin
T +5
Issue
Paxton
Talarico
Church-state separation
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
The ACLU has litigated establishment-clause cases since the 1920s; Paxton has pushed Ten Commandments mandates and school prayer1, while Talarico opposes Ten Commandments mandates and chaplaincy laws2.
Reproductive rights
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
The ACLU treats abortion access as a core liberty interest; Paxton enforces Texas's near-total ban and has sued over interstate travel1, while Talarico backs restoring abortion access and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) protections2.
LGBTQ rights
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
The ACLU litigates against trans-care bans and anti-LGBTQ laws; Paxton has led trans-care investigations and anti-LGBTQ litigation1, while Talarico backs LGBTQ equality2.
Criminal-justice reform
—
Helps
Paxton: — · Talarico: Helps
The ACLU pushes sentencing reform, decarceration, and police accountability; Talarico supports criminal-justice reform2, while Paxton's prosecutorial posture is enforcement-maximalist and offers nothing for the ACLU here.
Immigrants' rights
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
The ACLU defends due process for immigrants; Paxton's office runs hard-line enforcement litigation and DACA challenges1, while Talarico backs comprehensive immigration reform with due-process protections2.
Voting rights
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
The ACLU sues over voter-ID laws, gerrymanders, and election-worker prosecutions; Paxton is the muscle behind exactly those Texas policies, while Talarico backs the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and independent redistricting2.
Anti-surveillance
Hurts
—
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: —
The ACLU opposes expansive state surveillance; Paxton's office has expanded data-collection and election-records subpoenas. Talarico has not driven surveillance policy and is not a factor here.
Death penalty
Hurts
—
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: —
The ACLU is categorically against capital punishment; Paxton's office actively defends Texas executions. Talarico has not pushed abolition as a Senate plank, so he is not a meaningful plus for the ACLU here.
Second Amendment / due-process gun laws
Helps
Hurts
Paxton: Helps · Talarico: Hurts
The ACLU has historically been skeptical of expanded background checks on due-process and data-sharing grounds; Paxton's gun-rights maximalism1 wins partial credit, while Talarico's gun-safety expansions2 raise the civil-liberties concerns the ACLU has flagged.
Content-moderation regulation
—
Hurts
Paxton: — · Talarico: Hurts
The ACLU treats government-mandated social-media content rules as First Amendment problems; Talarico's content-moderation framework2 raises that concern. Paxton's attacks on platform moderation are themselves speech-coercive but cut a different direction, leaving him neutral on this exact plank.

Sources

  1. Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, official campaign issues page, accessed May 2026. (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. CNN interview, April 2026; Breitbart coverage of Paxton-Talarico exchange, April 23, 2026. (full list)

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