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On Sunday, Senator John Cornyn of Texas refrained from pledging his support for Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, in the event that Paxton wins the Republican Senate runoff in Texas. The winner will go on to face Democrat James Talarico in the November election.
During an appearance on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday,” host Chris Stirewalt questioned Cornyn about his previous remarks suggesting that Paxton might not be suitable for a U.S. Senate role. Stirewalt asked how Cornyn would reconcile those views with supporting the party’s eventual nominee and what guidance Republican voters should consider when casting their ballots in November.
Cornyn responded by saying, “I prefer not to engage in speculative questions about November. I fully expect to be the party’s nominee, so I don’t anticipate facing that scenario.” He acknowledged the ongoing intraparty debates, describing them as a “robust family fight” within the primary.
The senator emphasized the importance of party unity in the lead-up to the November election, underscoring that defeating Talarico is the ultimate objective. “That’s essentially what I was conveying,” Cornyn explained.
He further clarified his stance by stating, “People are asking about a situation that I believe won’t arise, which is why I addressed it as I did.”
Cornyn said not receiving President Trump’s endorsement on Tuesday was different from the losses Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) suffered to Trump-endorsed candidates. All three incumbents have been critical of the president in different ways, with Cornyn having said in 2023 that Trump’s time had “passed him by.”
Cornyn’s criticisms, he said, stem from choosing fights on a case-by-case basis while remaining supportive.
“So, 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,” he added. “And this is going to be critical to his last two years in office.”
Paxton has called Cornyn’s loyalty to Trump into question, having criticized the senator’s support for a gun bill in 2022 following the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Trump praised Cornyn as a “good man” in his endorsement of Paxton, but added that the challenger “is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas.”
“John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination, and then, the Presidency, itself,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “Ken Paxton has gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly, but he is a Fighter, and knows how to WIN. Our Country needs Fighters, and also Loyalty to the Cause of Greatness.”