A ~~no bullshit~~ non-partisan comparison of political candidates

Aggregate score

Paxton 2.7Talarico 6.1 T +3.4

McCain, John1936–2018 portrait

Scoring · Other politicians & military leaders

McCain, John
1936–2018

United States Congress. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

McCain's late-career institutionalism — the thumbs-down ACA-repeal vote, the 'regular order' speech, the anti-tribalism farewell letter, Gang of Eight immigration leadership, and pro-NATO/pro-Ukraine alliance posture — sets Paxton (the populist Trump-era mode McCain warned against, including dismantling the ACA McCain saved) against Talarico (institutionalist temperament, immigration reform, alliance restoration, regular-order anti-corruption package), with McCain's economic-policy disagreement with Talarico costing only a couple of points.⁴¹

2

6

Margin

T +4

Issue

Paxton

Talarico

ACA / 'thumbs-down' repeal vote

Hurts

Helps

Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps

McCain's defining late-career vote saved the ACA on the Senate floor;⁴¹ Paxton spent years litigating to dismantle that same ACA, while Talarico's Medicare-for-anyone framing² builds on rather than tears down the coverage architecture McCain protected.

'Regular order' / institutionalist process

Hurts

Helps

Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps

McCain's 'regular order' floor speech⁴¹ treated process integrity as a Senate value in itself; Paxton's forum-shopping and abuse-of-office record is the precise process-degradation McCain warned about, while Talarico's anti-corruption package² codifies the regular-order ethic.

Anti-tribalism (farewell letter)

Hurts

Helps

Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps

McCain's farewell letter⁴¹ warned against tribal politics as the GOP's looming threat; Paxton's faction-first primary style is the tribalism that letter named, while Talarico's respect-across-the-aisle posture² is its counter-example.

Immigration reform (Gang of Eight)

Hurts

Helps

Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps

McCain co-led the Gang of Eight comprehensive-reform bill with a citizenship pathway; Paxton's enforcement-only litigation record (DACA, sanctuary cities) cuts against that framework, while Talarico's 'front porch' citizenship-pathway frame² is its modern echo.

Pro-NATO / Ukraine alliance posture

Hurts

Helps

Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps

McCain was the Senate's loudest pro-NATO, pro-Ukraine voice; Paxton's alliance-skeptical posture and opposition to Ukraine aid is exactly what McCain spent his last years arguing against, while Talarico's alliance-restoration framework² tracks McCain's foreign-policy spine.

Cross-aisle respect / collegiality

Hurts

Helps

Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: Helps

McCain's working friendships across the aisle (Kennedy, Feingold, Biden) defined his Senate style; Paxton's personal-attack campaign mode is its opposite, while Talarico's 'coffee with the NRA member' civility² maps directly to it.

Progressive economic policy / taxes

Helps

Hurts

Paxton: Helps · Talarico: Hurts

McCain was a fiscal-conservative Republican who would have opposed Talarico's $15 minimum wage, corporate tax increases, and stock-buyback tax² as too progressive on economics, costing Talarico points despite the temperamental fit. Paxton's consistent opposition to tax increases and defense of low-tax frameworks¹ lines up with McCain's tax-cutting fiscal conservatism on this specific axis.

Sources