WASHINGTON — Texas Sen. John Cornyn on Sunday insisted he can overcome President Trump’s late-stage endorsement of primary-race rival Ken Paxton, despite the prez’s backing recently paying off big for other candidates.
Cornyn, a Republican, contended that his situation is “very different” than that of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), both of whom lost to Trump-backed primary rivals.
“I think it’s very different from the Cassidy and Massie situation because I’ve been a Trump ally, as you point out,” Cornyn told NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.”
“I think [Trump] got frustrated with the Senate, not able to get what he wanted when he wanted it,” which explains the rival endorsement, the US senator contended.
In contrast to Cassidy and Massie, Trump took it easy on Cornyn when he endorsed Paxton, the Lone Star State’s attorney general, last week.
Trump still hailed Cornyn as a “good man” who he has “worked well with,” although he dinged him for not being “supportive of me when times were tough.”
Cornyn had encouraged Trump not to run for president during the 2024 election cycle, urging him to instead focus on the criminal indictments pending against him at the time.
Paxton, by contrast, was an unapologetic Trump loyalist.
GOP leadership and the National Republican Senatorial Committee endorsed Cornyn, arguing he is a more viable contender in the general election than Paxton because of the AG’s baggage.
In 2015, Paxton was indicted on securities fraud charges that predated his time as AG. Those charges were subsequently dismissed in a pretrial diversion agreement.
Eight years later, he was impeached over accusations that he obstructed justice in the securities fraud case, made false statements against whistleblowers, gave preferential treatment to donors and misappropriated public resources.
Ultimately, he was acquitted in the impeachment proceedings in a narrow 16–14 vote in the state Senate.
The Texas primary will take place Tuesday. Whoever wins it will face off against Democrat James Talarico in the general election in November.
In terms of Cassidy, he was one of seven Republican senators who voted to impeach Trump in 2021, and Massie had long been a thorn in the president’s side during critical partisan votes over the past year and a half.
Trump had publicly railed against the two of them, particularly Massie.
Cornyn said Sunday that Trump “can be a pretty impatient guy” and explained that he picks his battles with the president on a case-by-case basis but is very supportive of his overall agenda.
“I’ll continue to vote in that same way, but sometimes the president needs a little help when, particularly, we’re dealing with the midterms here, where I think there’s a lot more anxiety than, perhaps, we can fully appreciate about the midterms,” Cornyn said.
“And this is going to be critical to his last two years in office.”
Cornyn had been starting to slip behind Paxton in the polls before Trump’s endorsement.
