Post-1979-resurgence SBC: pro-life (in vitro fertilisation (IVF)-skeptical after the 2024 resolution), traditional on marriage and gender, pro-religious-liberty, pro-school-choice. The post-2022 Guidepost sex-abuse reckoning elevated leader conduct to a disqualifying concern; Russell Moore was driven out partly over warnings about the Trump-evangelical alliance. Paxton hits the policy planks but the affair allegations from the 2023 impeachment, settled 2024 securities case, impeachment for abuse of office, and the Waco one-day plea (in a child-sex-abuse case handled by his office, per Tribune reporting) are the pattern the SBC has spent years repenting. Talarico's stated faith earns respect but he opposes nearly every policy plank.
Issue
Paxton
Talarico
Pro-life (including IVF skepticism)
Helps
Hurts
Paxton: Helps · Talarico: Hurts
Traditional marriage and gender
Helps
Hurts
Paxton: Helps · Talarico: Hurts
Religious liberty
Helps
Hurts
Paxton: Helps · Talarico: Hurts
The SBC has long centered religious-liberty litigation, reading it as protection for Christian institutional practice against state interference; Paxton's office has been an active religious-liberty plaintiff in that mold1, while Talarico's strict-church-state-separation framing reads — from the SBC's perspective — as the opposite plank and costs him on this row.
School choice / vouchers
Helps
Hurts
Paxton: Helps · Talarico: Hurts
Personal conduct of leaders
Hurts
—
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: —
Post-Guidepost, the SBC has elevated leader conduct to a disqualifying concern; Paxton's affair allegations aired during the 2023 impeachment75, settled 2024 securities case (no admission of guilt)4, impeachment for abuse of office4, and the Waco one-day plea deal in a child-sex-abuse case handled by his office (per Tribune reporting)6 are exactly the pattern the SBC has been repenting of. Talarico carries no comparable record.
Trump-evangelical alliance
Hurts
—
Paxton: Hurts · Talarico: —
Russell Moore's ouster signaled an internal SBC strain over the Trump-evangelical embrace; Paxton is the Trump-endorsed candidate and embodies that alliance1. Talarico is not part of that fight and is not the relevant counterweight here.
Stated personal faith
Helps
Helps
Paxton: Helps · Talarico: Helps
The SBC respects open profession of Christian faith; Talarico, a seminary student, foregrounds his faith, and Paxton's open profession of evangelical Christian faith1 also clears the narrow stated-faith bar (separate from the personal-conduct row above).
Anti-corruption framing
—
Helps
Paxton: — · Talarico: Helps
After the abuse-reckoning years, the SBC values clean-government rhetoric; Talarico's anti-corruption platform2 resonates even where the policy specifics don't. Paxton runs the other way under the conduct row.
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)
- Neena Satija et al., 'Inside the child sex abuse case that resulted in Ken Paxton's office offering a plea deal of just one day in jail,' Texas Tribune, May 19, 2026. (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)