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

Sources

Numbered footnotes throughout the site link to entries on this page. Each grader and issue page cites the specific sources used.

  1. Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, official campaign issues page, accessed May 2026.
  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.
  3. Gabby Birenbaum, 'On the issues: A Q&A with Ken Paxton and John Cornyn,' Texas Tribune, April 20, 2026.
  4. Patrick Svitek, 'Ken Paxton emerges victorious from yet another career scandal,' Texas Tribune, Sept. 17, 2023.
  5. Texas Tribune / ProPublica, 'Paxton files lawsuits in courts that could have more favorable outcomes,' May 20, 2026.
  6. 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.
  7. Texas Tribune, 'Texas families begin applying for private school vouchers,' Feb. 2026; coverage of Paxton AG opinion on Blaine Amendments.
  8. Texas Attorney General, 'Attorney General Ken Paxton Leads Nation in Protecting Americans' Data Privacy,' July 2025 (Meta $1.4B, Google $1.375B settlements; Character.AI investigation).
  9. Texas Attorney General, 'Paxton Says School Choice Legal in Texas,' March 2023.
  10. Texas Attorney General, 'Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Five Cities Over Marijuana Policies,' Jan. 2024; lawsuit against Dallas Proposition R, Nov. 2024.
  11. Texas Attorney General, multistate ATF lawsuits on private firearm sales (May 2024) and pistol stabilizing braces (Feb. 2023).
  12. Texas Attorney General, 'Sues Biden Administration Over Rule That Could Force Rural Nursing Homes to Shut Down,' Aug. 2024.
  13. Texas Attorney General, 'Secures Victory Protecting the Integrity of States' Medicaid Programs,' Sept. 2025.
  14. Texas Attorney General, 'Paxton Leads Coalition to Defeat DACA,' Dec. 2022; ongoing Fifth Circuit litigation since 2018.
  15. Truth Social statement endorsing Paxton over Cornyn, May 19, 2026 (covered by CNBC, NBC News, Breitbart).
  16. Wall Street Journal editorial board, referenced by Bret Baier on Fox News 'Special Report,' May 20, 2026: Trump 'will deserve complete and total credit' if Paxton wins primary and loses to Talarico.
  17. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Ken Paxton,' updated May 2026 (impeachment, securities settlement, AG litigation history).
  18. Talarico statement on Jubilee Media 'Surrounded,' Dec. 14, 2025 (corporate tax framing).
  19. Newsweek, 'Texas pushing through THC ban — Here's who's exempt,' May 2025 (Talarico called it 'a gift to the cartels').
  20. Marijuana Herald, March 2025 (HB 5307); KVUE, April 2021 (HB 4089).
  21. El Paso Matters, 'At El Paso ICE facility, James Talarico argues for pro-immigrant, pro-security approach,' Feb. 21, 2026.
  22. Texas House floor speech on HB 2960, May 2023, post-Allen mall shooting; Daily Caller News Foundation analysis, March 2026.
  23. CNN interview, April 2026; Breitbart coverage of Paxton-Talarico exchange, April 23, 2026.
  24. Sojourners, 'How Pope Leo XIV Understands His Role in Politics,' April 16, 2026; Britannica, 'Leo XIV,' May 2026.
  25. Lowy Institute, 'Two months in, what has Pope Leo XIV signalled as his foreign policy agenda?' July 2025.
  26. Cornyn campaign endorsements page; Texas Tribune Q&A endorsements list, April 2026.
  27. Ammoland.com, 'Gun Owners of America Warns Texans About Senate Candidate James Talarico's Gun Control Record,' March 2026; Paxton endorsement listing.
  28. University of Houston Hobby School poll, May 2026; Texas Tribune primary coverage, March 3, 2026.
  29. Brit Hume on Fox News 'Special Report,' May 20, 2026, citing WSJ editorial on electoral risk.
  30. The Hill, 'Sen. Susan Collins slams Donald Trump's Texas Senate endorsement of Ken Paxton,' May 19, 2026.
  31. Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (1995), §57 — on the inviolability of innocent human life.
    I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral. Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, §57 · accessed via vatican.va
  32. Walter Cronkite's CBS Evening News editorial after the Tet Offensive, Feb. 27, 1968; broader Cronkite Foundation archive on journalism standards.
  33. Martin Luther King Jr., 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' (1963); Poor People's Campaign (1968); 'Beyond Vietnam' address (1967).
  34. The Quran (multiple references to zakat, care for orphans, justice); authenticated hadith collections; the Constitution of Medina on religious pluralism.
  35. Texas Attorney General actions against CAIR, East Plano Islamic Center, and Catholic Annunciation House; ABC News and Tribune coverage, 2024-2026.
  36. Micah 6:8; Amos 5:24, 8:4; Isaiah 1:17, 2:4; Jeremiah 22:3 — the prophetic ethical tradition.
  37. The Utah Compact (2010), endorsed by LDS Church and broader Utah civic leadership; LDS First Presidency political-neutrality statements.
  38. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj (1909); My Experiments with Truth (1927); satyagraha framework; assassination by Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse (1948).
  39. Lincoln, Cooper Union Address (1860); Second Inaugural Address (1865); denunciation of the Know-Nothings (Aug. 1855 letter to Joshua Speed).
  40. Washington's Farewell Address (1796) on faction and foreign entanglements; Touro Synagogue letter (1790) on religious tolerance; voluntary surrender of power (1783, 1797).
  41. John McCain's July 28, 2017 vote against ACA repeal; final letter to America (Aug. 2018); 'regular order' Senate floor speech (July 25, 2017).
  42. Warren Buffett, 'Stop Coddling the Super-Rich,' New York Times op-ed, Aug. 14, 2011; Berkshire Hathaway annual letters; the Giving Pledge (2010); Buffett-Munger commentary on buybacks and executive compensation.
  43. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase annual shareholder letters 2019-2026; public statements on immigration reform, infrastructure, Ukraine, and institutional decline; congressional testimony on banking regulation.
  44. Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company launch (Jan. 2022) and pricing transparency model; public Twitter/X commentary on tax policy and Trump-era politics; Dallas Mavericks ownership profile.
  45. Farm Aid co-founding (1985, with Neil Young and John Mellencamp); Willie's Reserve cannabis brand launch; Beto O'Rourke 'Turn Out for Texas' rally headline (Sept. 29, 2018, Auditorium Shores); 'Vote 'Em Out' (2018); 'Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other' (recorded 2006); BioWillie biodiesel.
  46. John Adams, defense of British soldiers at Boston Massacre trial (1770); Adams-Jefferson correspondence (1812-1826); Discourses on Davila (1790-1791) on faction; 'facts are stubborn things' (Boston Massacre defense).
  47. Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography; Pennsylvania Gazette publications; founding of Library Company of Philadelphia (1731), Union Fire Company (1736), Pennsylvania Hospital (1751), American Philosophical Society (1743); late-life abolitionist petition to Congress (1790).
  48. Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers (1787-1788) Nos. 1, 6-9, 11-13, 15-17, 21-36, 59-61, 65-85; Report on Manufactures (1791); Report on Public Credit (1790); critique of Aaron Burr (1804 letters).
  49. Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (drafted 1777, enacted 1786); 'Wall of Separation' letter to Danbury Baptists (1802); Notes on the State of Virginia; Louisiana Purchase (1803).
  50. James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments (1785); Federalist No. 10 on faction; principal authorship of the Bill of Rights (1789); opposition to incorporation of Trinity Episcopal Church (1811 veto).
  51. James Monroe, Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 2, 1823 (Monroe Doctrine); Missouri Compromise (1820); Era of Good Feelings administration (1817-1825).
  52. State Bar of Texas Commission for Lawyer Discipline v. Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr., professional misconduct case filed 2022 over Texas v. Pennsylvania (2020) election lawsuit; Texas Supreme Court procedural rulings 2024-2026; State Bar of Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct.
  53. Forbes magazine ('Capitalist Tool'), founded 1917 by B.C. Forbes; Steve Forbes flat-tax presidential campaigns (1996, 2000); Forbes editorial coverage of tariffs as anti-growth, immigrant-entrepreneur celebration (annual 'Forbes 400' and '30 Under 30'), and skepticism of ESG mandates.
  54. Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (1994); Truth and Reconciliation Commission framework (1995-1998); Inaugural Address (May 10, 1994); Nobel Peace Prize lecture (with F.W. de Klerk, 1993); 'there can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children' (Mahlamba Ndlopfu launch speech, May 8, 1995).
  55. Sam Houston, speeches and letters opposing Texas secession (1859-1861); 'A Nation Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand' speech, Brenham, March 1861; James L. Haley, 'Sam Houston' (2002); refusal to take Confederate oath, March 16, 1861.
  56. Barbara Jordan, Statement on the Articles of Impeachment, July 25, 1974; Democratic National Convention Keynote Address, July 12, 1976; final report of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform (1994-1997), which she chaired; PBS NewsHour interview, June 1995.
  57. Jimmy Carter, Nobel Peace Prize lecture (2002); Habitat for Humanity work since 1984; The Carter Center election monitoring framework; 'Our Endangered Values' (2005); 'A Full Life' (2015); withdrawal from Southern Baptist Convention over women's ordination (2000).
  58. George C. Marshall, Marshall Plan speech at Harvard, June 5, 1947; Nobel Peace Prize lecture (1953); refusal to write memoirs for commercial profit; biographical record as Army Chief of Staff (1939-1945) and Secretary of State (1947-1949); Eisenhower's tribute and personal correspondence.
  59. Colin Powell, 'My American Journey' (1995); the Powell Doctrine on military force (overwhelming force, clear objectives, exit strategy); 2008 endorsement of Barack Obama on Meet the Press; 2020 endorsement of Joe Biden citing institutional concerns; reflections on the February 5, 2003 UN Iraq War speech.
  60. Sandra Day O'Connor, 'The Majesty of the Law' (2003); Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992); founding of iCivics (2009); public speeches on judicial independence (2010-2020); 'Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court' (2013).
  61. John Marshall and the Marshall Court (1801-1835); Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803); McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819); Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824); R. Kent Newmyer, 'John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court' (2001).
  62. The Lochner-era Supreme Court (1897-1937); Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905); Adkins v. Children's Hospital, 261 U.S. 525 (1923); the 'Four Horsemen' — Sutherland, Van Devanter, McReynolds, Butler; Bernard Siegan, 'Economic Liberties and the Constitution' (1980); David Bernstein, 'Rehabilitating Lochner' (2011).
  63. The Warren Court (1953-1969); Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954); Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966); Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963); Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967); the rights-incorporation jurisprudence.
  64. Antonin Scalia, 'A Matter of Interpretation' (1997); Scalia and Bryan A. Garner, 'Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts' (2012); Federalist Society jurisprudential framework; District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008); Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. 644 (2020) as originalist application.
  65. Robert Bork, 'The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law' (1990); 'Slouching Towards Gomorrah' (1996); the original-meaning-deferring-to-majorities framework; Bork's criticism of Griswold v. Connecticut and Engel v. Vitale as judicial overreach.
  66. Adrian Vermeule, 'Common Good Constitutionalism' (2022); Hadley Arkes, 'Constitutional Illusions and Anchoring Truths' (2010); post-2020 Federalist Society debates on the 'classical legal tradition'; Sohrab Ahmari, 'Tyranny, Inc.' (2023); the post-liberal legal movement's critique of liberal proceduralism.
  67. Milton Friedman, 'Capitalism and Freedom' (1962); 'Free to Choose' (1980, with Rose Friedman); 'The Role of Government in Education' (1955, establishing the school-voucher framework); Nobel Prize in Economics (1976); Wall Street Journal columns and Newsweek columns 1966-1984.
  68. Thomas Sowell, 'A Conflict of Visions' (1987); 'Basic Economics' (2000); 'Ethnic America' (1981); 'Knowledge and Decisions' (1980); 'Discrimination and Disparities' (2018); decades of syndicated columns; Hoover Institution senior fellow record.
  69. Carl Sagan, 'Cosmos' (1980, book and PBS series); 'The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark' (1995); 'Pale Blue Dot' (1994); congressional testimony on nuclear winter (1983); climate-change advocacy from the 1980s onward; co-founder of the Planetary Society.
  70. 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.
  71. 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.
  72. 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.
  73. 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.
  74. 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.
  75. 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.
  76. Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (1995), §56 — on the death penalty.
    [Punishment] ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender, except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent. Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, §56 · accessed via vatican.va
  77. Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (1995), §62 — on abortion.
    I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, §62 · accessed via vatican.va
  78. Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens (1981), §12 — the priority of labour over capital.
    This principle directly concerns the process of production: in this process labour is always a primary efficient cause, while capital, the whole collection of means of production, remains a mere instrument or instrumental cause. This principle is an evident truth that emerges from the whole of man's historical experience. Encyclical Laborem Exercens, §12 ('the principle of the priority of labour over capital') · accessed via vatican.va
  79. Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus (1991), §6 — on the dignity of human work.
    Work thus belongs to the vocation of every person; indeed, man expresses and fulfils himself by working. Encyclical Centesimus Annus, §6 · accessed via vatican.va
  80. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum Vitae (1987), Part II.5 — homologous in vitro fertilization.
    the Church remains opposed from the moral point of view to homologous 'in vitro' fertilization. Such fertilization is in itself illicit and in opposition to the dignity of procreation and of the conjugal union, even when everything is done to avoid the death of the human embryo. CDF Instruction Donum Vitae, Part II, q.5 · accessed via vatican.va
  81. Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio (1981), §11 — on marriage as the covenant of conjugal love.
    the covenant of conjugal love freely and consciously chosen, whereby man and woman accept the intimate community of life and love willed by God Himself Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, §11 · accessed via vatican.va
  82. Pope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis (1979), §17 — on religious freedom.
    Certainly the curtailment of the religious freedom of individuals and communities is not only a painful experience but it is above all an attack on man's very dignity, independently of the religion professed or of the concept of the world which these individuals and communities have. Encyclical Redemptor Hominis, §17 · accessed via vatican.va
  83. Pope John Paul II, Address to the Diplomatic Corps, 13 January 2003 — on war in Iraq.
    War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity. Address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, 13 January 2003 · accessed via vatican.va
  84. Pope John Paul II, Address to the 4th World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, 9 October 1998 — on the dignity of migrants.
    the Church 'must assume ever more fully the Good Samaritan's role, making herself 'neighbour' to all the rejected' Address on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, 9 October 1998 · accessed via vatican.va