Election 2026

Independent, source-first accountability

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Issue record

Costs and the economy

In short

Paxton's campaign would cut taxes and wasteful spending and remove rules it says target energy companies. Talarico's campaign backs a $15 minimum wage, a bigger Child Tax Credit and repealing tariffs. Brown's campaign would end the federal income tax and IRS and return tariff power to Congress. On the record, Talarico was first-named House sponsor of a 2023 Texas law allowing local property tax breaks for child care centers; it cuts no tax by itself.

Campaign positions

What each campaign says.

Ken Paxton

His campaign's issues page puts costs under fiscal restraint: he is described as a strong fiscal conservative who will cut taxes and stop wasteful spending against a national debt of over $36 trillion, and who will bring down costs and remove regulations he says were designed to hurt energy companies, while backing President Trump's economic agenda, manufacturing and jobs. The page carries no numbered proposal. His campaign's home page carries no issue text at all: the five cards under its "we are fighting for..." heading are unfilled template placeholders reading "issue title one goes here and here and here" over Lorem ipsum.

James Talarico

His campaign says the cost of living is the centre of his economic programme: raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, expand overtime eligibility, tax corporations that pay executives more than 250 times their median worker, end the tax breaks that let the largest corporations pay no federal income tax, expand the Child Tax Credit, pass paid family leave, protect Social Security by lifting the tax cap above $400,000, and repeal the tariffs he says are raising prices.

Ted Brown

His campaign's tax platform is the whole of his economic programme: repeal the federal income tax, abolish the Internal Revenue Service and, in his words, "replace them with nothing", which he puts at an average of $25,844 per federal income taxpayer; never vote to raise taxes; cut spending to match; and on trade, revoke the president's emergency tariff authorities and restore tariffs to Congress because tariffs are "taxes on consumers".

Evidence timeline

What the record shows.

  1. official action

    James Talarico: Matches stated record claim

    He was the first-named House sponsor of a 2023 act letting each county or city exempt child care centers. It cuts no tax by itself, and the voter approval it needed isn't confirmed here.

    Read the full check

    Full detail

    His own account says he passed a bill cutting property taxes for child-care centres. SB 1145 of the 88th Legislature created a local-option exemption from property taxation, by a county or a municipality, of all or part of the appraised value of real property used to operate a child-care facility. Senator West authored it; the House Sponsor field names five members and he is the first of them. Its identical House companion, HB 3621, is his own bill. Its last action, on May 29, 2023, reads "E See remarks for effective date", and the remarks record that the act takes effect January 1, 2024 but only if the voters approve SJR 64; whether they did is not established by any source this desk cites. Limit: He is the first-named House sponsor of the act and the author of the identical House companion, which did not itself pass, so "I passed a bill" is borne out on the record's own fields. Two bounds. The exemption is local option: it cuts no tax by itself, and each county or city decides whether to adopt it, which this card does not check for any jurisdiction. And the act depended on a constitutional amendment, SJR 64, that needed the voters' approval; whether it reached the ballot or was approved is not established by any source this desk cites. The post carries no link and no video and nothing outside its text was read.

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Sources7 source records

How we use sources

  1. The Fight Is Now. Paxton's All In For Texas.https://www.kenpaxton.com/issues

    Ken Paxton for Senate · Reviewed Oct 12, 2026

    Health-care pledge re-read October 12, 2026; no visible statement date. The campaign's whole platform, in seven sections: carrying President Trump's agenda, taking on food and pharmaceutical companies, the border, conservative principles including gun rights and transgender policy, an America-first foreign policy, fiscal restraint and energy, the case against the Democratic candidate, and support for cryptocurrency naming the CLARITY Act. It proposes no ethics, disclosure, term-limit or stock-trading measure, and the words ethics, term limits, campaign finance and disclosure appear nowhere on it.

    candidate statement

    For: Ken Paxton: campaign position

  2. Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, home pagehttps://www.kenpaxton.com/

    Ken Paxton for Senate · Reviewed Sep 14, 2026

    The campaign site answered a plain request directly. Its navigation is Home, The Fight at Hand, Meet Ken Paxton, Join Paxton's Patriots, Merch and Donate; there is no news or press index. The home page's five issue cards are unfilled template placeholders, each headed "issue title one goes here and here and here" over Lorem ipsum text, so the site's issue content is entirely on the page behind The Fight at Hand. Its footer links Facebook, X, YouTube and Flickr and no Instagram account. Cited for his biography, for the placeholder cards, and for the absence of an Instagram link.

    candidate statement

    For: Ken Paxton: campaign position

  3. Issues: Labor & Businesshttps://jamestalarico.com/issue/labor-business/

    Talarico for Texas · Reviewed Sep 14, 2026

    Carries his wage and workplace programme, including a $15 federal minimum wage, overtime expansion, a tax on corporations paying executives more than 250 times the median worker, Social Security funding above $400,000, paid family leave and the PRO Act.

    candidate statement

    For: James Talarico: campaign position

  4. Issues: Taxes & Cost of Livinghttps://jamestalarico.com/issue/taxes-cost-of-living/

    Talarico for Texas · Reviewed Sep 14, 2026

    Carries his cost-of-living programme and his account of the tax provisions he says raised costs. Read as part of the whole-site sweep and cited with the labour page for his economic position.

    candidate statement

    For: James Talarico: campaign position

  5. Ted Brown - Libertarian for U.S. Senator from Texashttps://tedbrown.org/website/index.html

    Ted Brown Election Committee · Reviewed Sep 14, 2026

    The whole campaign site is this one served page; tedbrown.org itself is a redirect to it, and every navigation item, Home, About, Platform, Media, Quotes, Contact and Donate, is an anchor within it. Its twelve platform sections are digital privacy, taxes, immigration, foreign policy, free trade, emergency powers, gun rights, the war on drugs, justice reform, education, police reform and health care. It carries the banner claim about special interests, his biography, his party offices, and links to X and Facebook and to no other account. It also carries a News Coverage index of dated outside articles about his campaign, which this desk did not search; the Media section lists interviews and the Quotes section lists quotations from others.

    candidate statement

    For: Ted Brown: campaign position

  6. Post of July 28, 2026 on property taxes for child-care centreshttps://x.com/jamestalarico/status/2082206232819958140

    X · Published Jul 28, 2026 · Reviewed Sep 14, 2026

    Collected from his declared campaign account and re-read against the platform on 2026-09-14, when it came back unchanged, by the same author, at the same publication time, with a single-entry edit history. A post is the candidate's own words and is not a record of any official action; the act it describes is cited separately.

    social profile

    For: James Talarico: Matches stated record claim

  7. 88(R) SB 1145, local-option property-tax exemption for child-care facilitieshttps://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&Bill=SB1145

    Texas Legislature Online · Published May 29, 2023 · Reviewed Sep 14, 2026

    Author: West, with coauthors Blanco and Eckhardt. Sponsor: Talarico, first of five, then Button, Bernal, Julie Johnson and Goodwin. Companion: HB 3621 by Talarico, identical. Last action 05/29/2023 E See remarks for effective date; the remarks record that the act takes effect January 1, 2024 but only if SJR 64 is approved by the voters, and the page records it as enabling legislation for SJR 64.

    official legislative record

    For: James Talarico: Matches stated record claim