Election 2026

Independent, source-first accountability

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Issue record

Health care

In short

Paxton pledges action against food and drug companies and greater transparency. His office reports a Kellogg's cereal-dye agreement, supporting the food-company pledge; health effects were not checked. Talarico backs Medicare buy-in, drug-cost caps and reversing health-program cuts. Brown backs free-market care, medical savings accounts and replacing the FDA with private certification. Talarico was first author of Texas's Canada drug-import law and second of two House sponsors of its $25 insulin-cap law.

Campaign positions

What each campaign says.

Ken Paxton

His campaign's issues page carries one health section, headed "TAKE ON BIG FOOD AND BIG PHARMA". It says Americans deserve transparency, accountability and the freedom to make informed choices about their health, and that in the Senate he will work with President Trump to take on pharmaceutical and food companies and increase transparency in food and health-care systems. It names no bill and no programme. His office's related actions in 2026 are investigations and settlements rather than legislation, including settlements requiring cereal brands to remove synthetic dyes and an investigation of an insurer over denied claims.

James Talarico

His campaign says health care is a human right and would let every American buy into Medicare at any age as a not-for-profit option, cap out-of-pocket drug costs and regulate pharmacy benefit managers, reverse this year's cuts to the Affordable Care Act credits, Medicare and Medicaid, reform prior authorisation, codify Roe v. Wade and protect contraception and IVF, and keep medical debt out of credit scores.

Ted Brown

His campaign says health care is "a service, and like other goods and services, it should be provided by free-market competition", and blames the cost of care on federal intervention since the 1960s, naming Medicare and Medicaid, occupational licensing, regulation and the Food and Drug Administration. He would promote medical savings accounts, make health expenses tax-deductible, allow insurance to be bought across state lines, allow catastrophic-only policies, replace the FDA with private certification and allow drugs to be bought from other countries.

Evidence timeline

What the record shows.

  1. official action

    Ken Paxton: Matches stated direction

    Paxton pledges action against food and drug companies. His office reports a Kellogg's cereal-dye agreement, supporting the food-company part of that pledge. Health effects were not checked.

    Read the full check

    Full detail

    His campaign pledges action against food and drug companies and greater transparency in food and health care. Paxton pledges action against food and drug companies. His office reports a Kellogg's cereal-dye agreement, supporting the food-company part of that pledge. Health effects were not checked. Limit: The August 13, 2025 office release reports a signed Assurance of Voluntary Compliance requiring WK Kellogg Co. to remove artificial cereal colorings by the end of 2027. The signed agreement and any court docket were not read. This executive action supports the food-company part of the pledge; it does not establish pharmaceutical action, completed rollout or health effects, and is not a Senate vote or enacted law.

  2. official action

    James Talarico: Matches stated record claim

    Both became law in Texas: he was first author of the drug import act and the second of two House sponsors of the Senate's $25 insulin cap bill.

    Read the full check

    Full detail

    His campaign's health-care page says he passed two measures on drug costs in the Texas Legislature, one capping insulin copayments at $25 a month and one letting Texas import prescription drugs from Canada. Both measures are law and the figures are exact. HB 25 of the 88th Legislature, the wholesale prescription drug importation act, lists him as the first of five authors, with 117 coauthors and Senator Kolkhorst as its Senate sponsor; it took effect September 1, 2023, and Texas Legislature Online indexes it under CANADA. On insulin, SB 827 of the 87th Legislature took effect September 1, 2021, and its enrolled text bars a health plan from imposing a cost-sharing requirement where "the total amount the enrollee is required to pay exceeds $25 per prescription for a 30-day supply", which is the cap he describes. On that bill the Author field names Senator Kolkhorst and fourteen joint authors, and the House Sponsor field names two members, Lucio III and Talarico, in that order. Limit: The word doing the work is "passed", and it holds differently on the two bills. On the importation act he is the first-named author of a House bill that became law. On the insulin cap he is the second of the two House sponsors of a Senate bill someone else authored; unlike the single-name Sponsor field on a federal bill, the Texas record can and does name more than one sponsor, so it is able to record a co-lead and here it records him second. Neither bill is his alone, and both carry large bipartisan coauthor lists. Whether the importation programme has begun operating, and what either law has done to prices, are questions this card does not assess.

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Sources8 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; Ken Paxton: Matches stated direction

  2. News Releaseshttps://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases

    Office of the Attorney General of Texas · Reviewed Sep 14, 2026

    The office's only public list of its own actions, paginated ten releases to a page. It ignores a full-text search parameter and a page-size parameter, returning the first page either way, so it cannot be filtered or enlarged by an automated reader. The first page on 2026-09-14 ran from the TikTok liability verdict of September 10, 2026 back to a Houston County sentence of August 18, 2026, and included the Meta settlement, an Amazon suit, investigations of an insurer and of avocado-oil labelling, and settlements on synthetic dyes in cereals. Cited for what the office has published and for the fact that it publishes no docket or count of suits filed.

    official office record

    For: Ken Paxton: campaign position

  3. Issues: Health Carehttps://jamestalarico.com/issue/health-care/

    Talarico for Texas · Reviewed Sep 14, 2026

    Carries his account of his type 1 diabetes diagnosis and the $684 he paid for a first 30-day supply of insulin, the claim about the $25 insulin cap and importation from Canada, his federal programme on Medicare buy-in and drug pricing, and a track record list naming the insulin cap, Canadian importation, surprise billing, rural hospitals and medical marijuana.

    candidate statement

    For: James Talarico: campaign position; James Talarico: Matches stated record claim

  4. 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

  5. Kellogg's cereal-dye agreement, August 13, 2025https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-paxton-secures-historic-legal-agreement-kelloggs-remove-toxic-artificial-dyes-its

    Office of the Attorney General of Texas · Published Aug 13, 2025 · Reviewed Oct 12, 2026

    The office reports a signed Assurance of Voluntary Compliance with WK Kellogg Co. to remove artificial cereal colorings by the end of 2027. The release was read; the signed agreement and any court docket were not. It supports an office-reported formal action, not a measured health benefit or completed rollout.

    official office record

    For: Ken Paxton: Matches stated direction

  6. 88(R) HB 25, wholesale importation of prescription drugshttps://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&Bill=HB25

    Texas Legislature Online · Published Jun 12, 2023 · Reviewed Sep 14, 2026

    Caption: relating to wholesale importation of prescription drugs in this state; authorizing a fee. Author: Talarico, first of five, followed by Frank, Burrows, Rose and Klick, with 117 coauthors. Senate sponsor: Kolkhorst, with five cosponsors. Last action 06/12/2023 E Effective on 9/1/23. The subject index carries CANADA and WHOLESALE PRESCRIPTION DRUG IMPORTATION ACT. The House select committee reported it 7 ayes to 0 nays.

    official legislative record

    For: James Talarico: Matches stated record claim

  7. 87(R) SB 827, cost-sharing requirements for prescription insulinhttps://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=87R&Bill=SB827

    Texas Legislature Online · Published Jun 14, 2021 · Reviewed Sep 14, 2026

    Author: Kolkhorst, with fourteen joint authors including Senator Paxton, who is Angela Paxton of District 8 and not the candidate on this desk. Sponsor: Lucio III, then Talarico, with 95 cosponsors. Last action 06/14/2021 E Effective on 9/1/21. The Senate committee reported it 8 ayes to 0 nays.

    official legislative record

    For: James Talarico: Matches stated record claim

  8. 87(R) SB 827, enrolled texthttps://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/html/SB00827F.HTM

    Texas Legislature Online · Published Jun 14, 2021 · Reviewed Sep 14, 2026

    Section 1358.103(b) of the Insurance Code as added: a health benefit plan may not impose a cost-sharing provision for a formulary insulin if the total the enrollee must pay exceeds $25 per prescription for a 30-day supply, regardless of the amount or type of insulin. Section 2 applies the change to plans delivered, issued for delivery or renewed on or after January 1, 2022. Read because a caption is a title and only the enrolled text carries the figure.

    official legislative record

    For: James Talarico: Matches stated record claim