Scoring · Foundational moral figures
Jesus of the Gospels
c. 4 BCE–c. 30 CE
Unknown artist. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Five Gospel passages anchor the test — Matthew 25 (hungry, sick, stranger)70, Matthew 6 (no piety for public display)71, Luke 12 (no wealth-hoarding)72, Luke 1 (unborn life)73, Mark 12 (church-state separation)74. Paxton's record runs against four of the five and earns points only on Luke 1 and a personal profession of faith; Talarico's platform tracks Matthew 25 almost directly, with the Luke 1 row pulling him down two points.
Issue
Paxton
Talarico
Care for the sick (Matt 25:36)
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
Matthew 25 makes care for the sick a salvation-level test; Paxton has refused Medicaid expansion in the state with the highest uninsured rate, while Talarico has campaigned on Medicaid expansion and healthcare as a right.
Welcome the stranger (Matt 25:35)
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
Jesus identifies himself with the stranger; Paxton led DACA litigation against the stranger and investigated the Catholic migrant shelter Annunciation House, while Talarico frames immigration policy as a direct Matthew 25 question.
Piety for public display (Matt 6:1-18)
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
Jesus condemned ostentatious religious display, especially when paired with private wrongdoing; Paxton mandates Ten Commandments posters in classrooms while facing affair allegations aired during the 2023 impeachment75 and a settled 2024 securities case (no admission of guilt)4, while Talarico — a seminarian — has campaigned against state-imposed religious displays as exactly the kind of piety Matthew 6 condemns.
Wealth-hoarding (Luke 12:13-21)
—
Helps
Paxton: — · Talarico: Helps
Luke 12 warns the rich fool whose barns overflow; Talarico's platform centers defense of the poor against concentrated wealth. Paxton has not campaigned on wealth distribution either way and is a non-factor on this specific row.
Unborn life (Luke 1:39-45)
Helps
Hurts
Paxton: Helps · Talarico: Hurts
The traditional reading of Luke 1 treats unborn life as morally weighty from the womb; Paxton is anti-abortion on the standard Christian-traditional line, while Talarico's full abortion and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) stance is to the left of most Christian traditions and costs him two points.
Church-state separation (Mark 12:13-17)
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
Jesus drew a clean line between Caesar and God; Paxton's Ten Commandments mandates and his investigation of Annunciation House (a Catholic ministry) collapse that line, while Talarico's explicit church-state separation matches Mark 12 directly.
Annunciation House investigation
Hurts
Helps
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps
The investigation runs against Matthew 25 (the stranger) and Mark 12 (church-state separation) simultaneously; Paxton's office has pursued the shelter, while Talarico has publicly defended Annunciation House and the religious-ministry framing of its work.
Personal profession of faith
Helps
Helps
Paxton: Helps · Talarico: Helps
Personal Christian profession is a Gospel-level claim that Jesus took seriously; Paxton openly identifies as Christian and Talarico is a professing Christian and an active Presbyterian seminarian — both score on this specific personal-profession test, even where their other Gospel-level rows diverge.
Sources
- Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, official campaign issues page, accessed May 2026. (full list)
- 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)
- Patrick Svitek, 'Ken Paxton emerges victorious from yet another career scandal,' Texas Tribune, Sept. 17, 2023. (full list)
- Gospel of Matthew 25:31-46 (NRSV-UE), the Judgment of the Nations: 'I was hungry and you gave me food, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me' — the most cited Jesus passage on social ethics. (full list)
- Gospel of Matthew 6:1-18 (NRSV-UE), the Sermon on the Mount: 'Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them' — Jesus's direct warning against religious display for public effect. (full list)
- Gospel of Luke 12:13-21 (NRSV-UE), the Parable of the Rich Fool: 'one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions' — Jesus's sharpest teaching against wealth-hoarding. (full list)
- Gospel of Luke 1:39-45 (NRSV-UE), the Visitation: 'the child in my womb leaped for joy' — the traditional Christian proof text for the moral status of unborn life. (full list)
- Gospel of Mark 12:13-17 (NRSV-UE), the Tribute to Caesar: 'Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's' — the foundational Gospel text for church-state distinction. (full list)
- James Barragán, 'Ken Paxton's affair impacted staff morale, former staffer testifies,' Texas Tribune, Sept. 11, 2023 — sworn testimony at the impeachment trial concerning the extramarital affair allegations the House Investigating Committee identified as motivating the underlying conduct. (full list)