Senate Republicans erupted in barely disguised anger in Washington this week after Donald Trump refused to endorse 20‑year Texas veteran John Cornyn and instead backed scandal‑hit challenger Ken Paxton in the state's GOP Senate runoff on 26 May. The president's surprise move on 19 May, after months of lobbying from Cornyn and his colleagues, has left senior Republicans warning that Trump and Paxton may have made it easier for Democrats to flip a seat they have pursued for decades.
Cornyn, a former member of the Senate Republican leadership, has long been considered one of the party's most influential figures on Capitol Hill. He has represented Texas in the Senate for more than two decades and, until recently, was treated as an automatic favourite to win renomination.
After waffling for months on how to proceed, President Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the state’s Republican Senate primary, a reversal of his earlier plan to endorse Sen. John Cornyn, the 23-year incumbent.https://t.co/5iSGKoGZ1G
Trump's endorsement is often decisive in Republican primaries, and Cornyn spent months courting it in public, even floating the idea of naming a major highway the 'Trump Interstate' to flatter the party's dominant figure.
None of it worked. When Trump finally weighed in, he did so on behalf ofPaxton, the Texas attorney general whose legal and ethical troubleshave made him a lightning rod in state and national politics. That decision, dropped abruptly into a race where early voting is already under way, caught much of the Republican caucus off guard and injected fresh tension into a party still trying to manage Trump's sway over its internal battles.
The frustration among Republican senators was evident in their on‑the‑record comments. Mike Rounds of South Dakota did not attempt to hide his disappointment at seeing Cornyn passed over. 'He was very well‑respected,' Rounds said, referring to his Texan colleague. 'There are a lot of folks in our conference who are disappointed.'
Cornyn's allies in the leadership echoed that line. Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune told reporters at his weekly news conference that he had been clear for months about where he stood in the Texas primary and that Trump's intervention would not change that.
BREAKING: Trump endorsed Ken Paxton in the Republican U.S. Senate primary runoff against Sen. John Cornyn in Texas.Paxton was impeached by the Republican-controlled Texas House in 2023 over allegations of bribery and abuse of office.Very good news for Democratspic.twitter.com/EcR4klKJyY
'Senator Cornyn is a principled conservative. He is a very effective senator,' Thune said. 'None of us control what the president does. He made his decision about that. That doesn't change the way I feel.'
The subtext was hard to miss. For years, Senate Republicans have tried to present a public face of unity even as Trump has reshaped their party in his own image. Here, the clash is unusually personal.
Source: International Business Times UK
