The White Home
Sen. John Cornyn Cornyn performed the loyal good ol’ boy, diligently staying within the good graces of Trump — or at the very least avoiding being the goal of his wrath.
This text was initially revealed by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative information outlet. Join their weekly publication, or comply with them on Fb and Twitter.
Within the wake of the Uvalde faculty capturing in 2022, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn bucked his social gathering’s base by main the passage of a minor reform to federal gun legal guidelines. He tried to make his case in a speech to a hostile crowd at his personal state’s GOP conference, persisting by 20 minutes of boos. After the invoice was signed into legislation, Cornyn rode the excessive with a promise to strike a deal on one other political third rail: immigration.
This type of quasi-maverickism has earned Cornyn a popularity because the proverbial grownup within the room, the closest factor Texas politics has to an elder statesman. After all, Cornyn advantages from a beneficiant grading curve because of friends like Sen. Ted Cruz, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Legal professional Common Ken Paxton, and Gov. Greg Abbott.
However reputations, particularly when burnished with a senatorially silver hairstyle, might be deceiving. Cornyn has no real interest in following ex-Sens. John McCain and Mitt Romney into maverick martyrdom. Any inkling of precept that Cornyn could present is eclipsed by his goals for greater energy.
As a longtime high lieutenant for Senate Republican Chief Mitch McConnell, Cornyn has for years made it recognized that he aspires to the throne as soon as the aged Kentuckian steps down—a time that’s now quick approaching. The 81-year-old McConnell — who has been in workplace for the reason that Reagan administration and has led his social gathering within the Senate since 2006 — has been suffering from very public well being issues and a hostile relationship with Donald Trump. On Wednesday, McConnell introduced that he’ll step down as chief this November.
Cornyn has spent the higher a part of the previous decade positioning himself as McConnell’s inheritor obvious. Whereas their shared model of genteel company conservatism got here below siege by blunt-force Trumpism, Cornyn performed the loyal good ol’ boy, diligently staying within the good graces of Trump — or at the very least avoiding being the goal of his wrath.
After Trump’s loss in November 2020, and his overt try to overturn the election outcomes, Cornyn made no secret of his hope for the previous president to go gently into that humid Mar-a-Lago night time. It actually would have simplified his personal goals within the Senate. Final yr, Cornyn urged his fellow Republicans to search out “a candidate who can truly win.”
“I feel President Trump’s time has handed him by,” he stated. Nonetheless, as challengers lined as much as tackle Trump, Cornyn vowed to stay impartial.
Nevertheless it didn’t take lengthy for Texas’ senior senator to acknowledge actuality. After Trump’s decisive major victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, Cornyn swiftly referred to as the sport. “I’ve seen sufficient,” Cornyn declared on social media. “To beat Biden, Republicans have to unite round a single candidate, and it’s clear that President Trump is Republican voters’ alternative.”
Since first getting elected U.S. senator in 2002, Cornyn has dealt with his tenure in Washington with finesse: as a dogged champion of Bush-era conservatism, an keen assault canine towards Obama liberalism, then as a handmaiden to the GOP’s craven flip below Trump.
Now, Cornyn is among the “three Johns,” together with senators Thune from South Dakota and Barrasso of Wyoming, who’re seen because the most definitely members to succeed McConnell on the helm of the physique’s Republican convention. (Whether or not that’s as chief of the bulk or minority stays to be seen.)
Within the seemingly occasion {that a} once-quiet marketing campaign for Senate GOP chief turns into an open battle royale, Cornyn’s path to energy may get treacherous. For a number of years now, Trump allies like Steve Bannon have been making an attempt to oust McConnell and his acolytes from the Senate to exchange them with MAGA loyalists. Amongst Trump’s base, Cornyn could also be tolerated at greatest; at worst, he’s an emblem of the “RINO” globalists who use the clubby confines of the Senate to dam a lot of the MAGA agenda.
Take immigration, as an illustration. Cornyn has helped lead the Republican push to make use of international help funding to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan to extract immigration and border safety concessions from President Joe Biden. However such a Senate deal is a nonstarter for Trump-aligned Home Republicans, who’re demanding passage of their very own draconian border invoice.
By January, the potential deal was floundering. Trump pressured Senate Republicans to kill the trouble so as to deny Biden a potential legislative victory and preserve the difficulty ripe for the previous’s imminent return to energy. Cornyn, who was not among the many interior circle of Senate negotiators, largely struck a noncommittal pose within the lengthy leadup to the invoice’s launch. In early February, the proposal was lastly unveiled—solely to be given the kiss of dying by Home GOP management inside hours.
Whereas Cornyn has studiously collected energy and affect in D.C., his stature in Republican politics again dwelling has steadily eroded. He’s managed to keep away from any severe major challengers, however the tides have turned and the previous president’s closest allies in Texas have grown outwardly hostile to Cornyn. Chief amongst them: Ken Paxton.
On the state GOP conference again in 2022, Paxton adopted up Cornyn’s ill-received speech with a direct snipe on the senator. “We’ve some Republicans who’re making an attempt to run from the battle, and we have to bear in mind their names subsequent time they’re on the poll,” Paxton proclaimed. As a former Texas legal professional basic himself, Cornyn had blasted Paxton’s (alleged) intensive corruption as a stain on the workplace.
As Paxton confronted down impeachment costs for those self same allegations this previous summer season, rumors started swirling that the AG is likely to be eying a major problem towards Cornyn when the latter’s seat is subsequent up in 2026.
Recent off his full acquittal by the Texas Senate this previous September, Paxton doubled down in an interview with Tucker Carlson. “To me, [Cornyn]’s been in Washington too lengthy. He’s been there, what, for 14 years or so? And I can’t consider a single factor he’s achieved for our state and even for the nation,” Paxton stated. “Every thing’s on the desk for me. … I feel it’s time someone must step up and run towards this man.”
The senior senator hasn’t let Paxton’s focused assaults go unanswered. When the AG went after his vote to approve a international help funding bundle untethered to a border invoice final month, Cornyn shot again in a tweet: “Ken, your prison protection legal professionals are calling to counsel you spend much less time pushing Russian propaganda and extra time defending longstanding felony costs towards you in Houston, in addition to ongoing federal grand jury proceedings in San Antonio that can most likely lead to additional prison costs.”
Cornyn has been patiently biding his time in hopes of turning into the subsequent Senate chief, a publish not held by a Texan since Lyndon Baines Johnson. LBJ himself realized way back, throughout his preliminary failed presidential nomination bids, that energy in Washington’s higher chamber doesn’t at all times translate to forex again dwelling, a lesson Cornyn could also be studying too. The silver-haired Texan might need the juice left to succeed in his caucus’ helm, however any hope for a clean ascent — similar to his want for Trump to fade away — has seemingly evaporated.
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