UPDATE: As our report anticipated, John Cornyn lost the election to become Senate Republican Leader. It reveals more than a judgement against him by his Senate colleagues. Cornyn has been cancelled. Cornyn is now most likely a lame duck Senator who will either not seek re-election in 2026 or will fall to a MAGA acolyte primary challenger. In MAGA Trump world, “Texan” – and even “American” – just don’t mean very much.
Texas U.S. Senator John Cornyn may or may not become Senate Majority Leader when Senate Republicans meet to make a choice today. If he does, it will be despite fellow Texas Republicans and not because of them.
Cornyn has been working to become the Republican Senate Leader in Congress for over a decade. Given his seniority, loyalty to fellow Republicans, years of work on their behalf, and his origins in Texas—a major Republican donor state and the state with the largest number of Republican members of Congress—it’s easy to see him as a favorite.
Will Texans Torpedo Cornyn?
Scratch that last part, though. Texas elected officials and activists most closely aligned with Trump and with the MAGA movement aren’t backing John Cornyn and, in some cases, are publicly trashing him.
Prominent among them is Ted Cruz. Apparently Cornyn failed to insult Cruz’s wife and his father which is all it took for Trump to reel Ted in. No. Cruz is supporting the MAGA favorite for the job, Rick Scott from Florida. It is an extraordinary snub by Ted of his senior Senate colleague from Texas.
In the past, Texans Supported Texans
With few exceptions, over decades, Texas Members of Congress who credibly sought leadership positions could count on the unified support of their fellow party members in Congress and at home in Texas.
Democrats like Senate Leader and later President Lyndon Johnson, House Speaker Sam Rayburn, House Speaker Jim Wright, Senate Finance Chair and later Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentson, and House Democratic Caucus Chair Martin Frost would likely not have won their posts without support from Democratic colleagues in Congress and Texas supporters at home.
More recently, Texas Republicans like former Congressmen Tom DeLay and Dick Armey may have been partisan firebrands. Still, they used a large and unified Texas Republican Congressional Delegation and Republican support in Texas to gain and hold leadership positions. Retiring Congresswoman Kay Granger relied upon support from the Texas delegation and backers at home to hold her leadership position on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
There are no “Texas” Republicans. They are all MAGA now
John Cornyn or anyone else who thinks that Texas Republicans as a group can act with outsized influence within MAGA are finding out otherwise. Trump and the authoritarian MAGA movement conquered and dismantled the Republican Party nationally. Texas Republicans exercise no discernable independence. They are extensions of MAGA. They have bent the knee to Donald Trump and act at his direction.
