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A few days after losing his Senate runoff, John Cornyn did something unusual for him: He used his leverage against his own party.
The Texas Republican was frustrated by a nearly year-long delay in getting his state reimbursed by the Trump administration for more than $10 billion in border security spending that Congress had already approved. Cornyn had something valuable to withhold as lawmakers prepared to take up President Donald Trump’s $70 billion immigration spending bill.
“Basically, I told Senator Barrasso and Senator [John] Thune: ‘There’s a price for my vote, and it is to get the administration to release the money,’” Cornyn told Semafor in a recent interview in his hideaway office on the Capitol’s third floor. “Next thing I got is a call from [White House budget director] Russ Vought, and Russ said, ‘we’ll put a notice of funding.’”
Cornyn added a reminder that, with more than six months left in office and a sophisticated understanding of the Senate, he’s positioned to play more hardball if he has to: “That’s one example I think of what you can do when you have some cards to play.”
The four-term incumbent is already setting some conditions on his critical undecided vote for Trump’s attorney general pick, Todd Blanche. Cornyn has returned to the candor he displayed for years in the Senate halls, offering withering assessments of Trump’s Iran deal and legislative strategy — a pattern he might continue on Wednesday, when the president visits GOP senators in person.
One thing the two-time campaign arm won’t threaten to withhold is his largesse on the trail. He is organizing a large September fundraiser for his colleagues and favorite Senate candidates: Sens. Jon Husted of Ohio, Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, plus former Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire and former Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan.
Cornyn draws the line, however, at sending money to Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general who defeated him in the GOP primary with Trump’s endorsement. Working for other candidates in cheaper states makes more sense to Cornyn, who isn’t sure Paxton can win.
“The president picked Paxton, and he’s got $350 million dollars. I think he can spend his money,” Cornyn said of Texas and Trump. “I’m going to try to help in other places.”
Cornyn is throwing himself into the battle for the Senate because he is “very worried about the midterms,” with Republicans in danger of losing both chambers of Congress. Citing a recent poll that showed Husted down by 8 points in Ohio, the Texan said his party is struggling in “places where we should be kind of running away with it.”
As for his own fate, Cornyn theorized that Trump’s endorsement of Paxton was, in part, “to punish” the Senate majority leader, “because Thune had made it very clear he was supporting me.” After Thune narrowly edged out Cornyn for the Senate GOP leader job in 2024, the two quickly patched things up.
“I don’t know how Paxton raises the money he’s going to need to run against Talarico — who’s got unlimited resources — in the next four and a half months,” Cornyn said. “And while Talarico is definitely a weirdo, you know, take your pick.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Cornyn’s lack of enthusiasm for Paxton makes him a “sore loser.” Cornyn sees comments like that as proof that his state’s party leaders are “basically continuing to alienate what I would call traditional conservative Republicans like me, and the people who voted for me. Makes no sense whatsoever.”
As Cornyn shows off his independence from a party Trump has captured, he’s getting backup from colleagues who’ve already done the same. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who lost her own primary in 2010, said Cornyn is now “looking forward, he’s not looking backwards — which I think is good and healthy.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., also ousted by Trump in May, told Semafor that he and Cornyn are “like-minded in the sense that we’re both not returning, and that gives a certain focus. And he’s conveyed he’s got no illusions about the president.
“But you know,” Cassidy added, “it’s not like we sit around in a smoke-filled room, plotting the strategy.”
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Cornyn used to talk to Trump a lot. He was the GOP whip for the first two years of Trump’s term, a job requiring constant coordination. They talked regularly in the months ahead of his May 26 primary loss, but haven’t since then.
Conversations with Trump aren’t “particularly useful,” Cornyn said, “because he can and will change his mind depending on the next person he talks to on the phone.
“The president seems to revel in chaos, which is so different from any other leader that I’ve ever seen. I don’t know about you, but I like to minimize the chaos in my life,” Cornyn added. “He just seems to revel in it. We’ve seen even recent evidence of it on the DNI.”
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, ticked off Trump’s top accomplishments and said that “President Trump remains focused on providing results for the American people and he’s doing just that.”
Still, Trump’s decision to install BIll Pulte as the director of national intelligence and tie surveillance law to the passage of new voter ID rules is perplexing Senate Republicans.
But Cornyn said Trump isn’t fully to blame. He pointed to other Republicans who raise expectations of steamrolling Democrats via the talking filibuster despite Thune’s efforts to be more realistic with Trump.
And he singled out Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who thinks “somehow we’re going to beat the opponents into submission.
“Well, I’ve worked here a long time. It doesn’t work that way,” Cornyn quipped.
For all his real talk, Cornyn underscored that he’s not out to hurt the president. He’s voted against Trump less frequently than Cassidy and so far caused fewer issues than outgoing GOP senators Mitch McConnell and Thom Tillis.
For instance, Cornyn said Trump is still “due a little deference on his Cabinet,” so he’s open to Blanche’s nomination as he awaits more information about the tax audit immunity agreement that the Justice Department reached on Trump’s behalf with the IRS.
Cornyn isn’t letting Blanche breeze out of committee, though. At their one-on-one meeting, he broached a tough subject: What Blanche would do if Trump asked him directly to break the law.
Blanche replied that “‘I hesitate to answer the question, because I don’t want to suggest the president would ever ask me to do anything inappropriate,’” Cornyn recalled.
“But he said if [Trump] did, and it was something that he felt like he could not in good conscience do, that he would resign.”
Room for Disagreement
Even as Cornyn contended he’s not “a member of the YOLO Caucus,” he made clear that “I am free to disagree.”
That might extend to at least one Republican 2028 presidential hopeful. He said he’s thinking deeply about the future of his party, declining to opine on whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Vice President JD Vance should carry the banner because “I don’t want to jinx either one of them.”
He was clearer about his fellow Texas senator: “But don’t tell Ted Cruz that, because Ted wants to be the next president.”
Cruz didn’t endorse Cornyn for reelection either.
“Ted’s entitled to make his own choices. I’m not bitter,” Cornyn said. “People in politics are very competitive. … And they don’t necessarily care a whole lot about anybody else. That may sound a little harsh, but I think that’s kind of the reality. So I wish him well.”
Burgess’s view
Sitting down with Cornyn revealed that one of the Senate’s most quotable political combatants is back to blunt talk that he’d quelled ahead of this year’s primary. He’s also using his sway with his colleagues to maneuver more boldly on the Senate floor.
Cornyn seems lighter, too, after his brutal race ended. YOLO or no, that’s probably not great news for Trump.
Notable
- Cornyn predicted a “miserable” final two years for Trump in an interview with The New York Times.