Sen. John Cornyn looks to overcome Paxton primary challenge by embracing TrumpAs he faces the toughest electoral challenge of his career, Cornyn has also wielded his powers as a U.S. senator to lean into partisan issues prized by the GOP base.By Owen Dahlkamp
June 30, 2025WASHINGTON — Over his 22 years in Congress, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has amassed untold power within the Republican Party, serving on high-ranking committees and ascending his party’s leadership ranks.
But the Republican base that sent Cornyn to the Senate in 2002 has transformed. GOP voters have turned to the right, prizing partisan fighters like President Donald Trump and championing culture war issues over the traditional pillars of fiscal prudence and small government.
Out of that movement has come Cornyn’s 2026 primary challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is harnessing his reputation as a no-holds-barred conservative to position himself as the president’s warrior from outside the Washington beltway in which Cornyn has been ingrained.
With Cornyn’s establishment ties putting his reelection bid in jeopardy, Texas’ senior senator is going all in on emphasizing his support for Trump — something he has been previously wary to do — to court the MAGA base that will be key to winning next year’s primary. Over the past several months, Cornyn has played up his conservative bona fides and allegiance to Trump's agenda through the bully pulpit of his office, issuing public declarations, holding hearings and embracing the president's favorite issues — even posting a photo of himself reading Trump’s “Art of the Deal” book.
Those efforts appear aimed at combating the perception among some GOP voters that Cornyn is not conservative enough and has spent too long in Washington, fueled by his role in passing the first gun safety bill in a generation and his ties to Senate GOP leadership.
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https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/30/john-cornyn-senate-texas-primary-republicans-trump-paxton/
