On Tuesday, President Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a lengthy Truth Social post, formally entering the Texas Republican Senate primary runoff and choosing the insurgent over the incumbent. It wasn’t exactly a surprising development, but it’s not like Sen. John Thune didn’t have the chance to win the endorsement. And now he’s likely to lose next week’s runoff.
Trump was uncharacteristically diplomatic about the senator he was kneecapping. "He is a very good man, and I have worked well with him," Trump wrote of Cornyn. When have you ever seen him so cordial to someone whom he wasn’t endorsing? Clearly, the endorsement was never really about loyalty alone.
So, what sealed Cornyn’s fate? The SAVE America Act.
The SAVE America Act has been Trump's top legislative priority. The bill requires proof of citizenship to register to vote, and a photo ID to vote in federal elections. It has bipartisan support in the polls, has already passed the House, and could pass in the Senate if not for the Democrats' filibuster.
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John Cornyn had a choice. He could have thrown his full institutional weight behind getting the bill done. He didn't (or couldn’t), and on Tuesday, that hesitation may have cost him a critical endorsement.
Earlier this year, Trump was reportedly going to endorse Cornyn but instead held his endorsement, tying it to the fate of the SAVE America Act. Trump was using the most coveted endorsement in Republican politics as a pressure tactic, squeezing senators to make his top legislative priority a reality.
However, the SAVE America Act still hasn't passed. Republicans have neither nuked the filibuster nor enforced a talking filibuster to make it happen, and Trump's patience ran out. Establishment Republicans had let him down.
"I have worked closely with President Trump through both of his Presidential terms and voted with him more than 99% of the time," Cornyn said in response to Trump's endorsement of Paxton. "He has consistently called me a friend in this race. It is now time for Texas Republican voters to decide if they want a strong nominee to help our GOP candidates down ballot and defeat Talarico in November, or a weak nominee who jeopardizes everything we care about. I trust the Republican voters of Texas".
Cornyn is not without a defense here. He isn't the Senate Majority Leader, and he did support the bill. The problem is that the majority is supposed to govern. Cornyn, as one of the Senate's most senior Republicans and a longtime institutional fixture, made an easy symbolic target. When Trump looks at a stalled agenda, he doesn't see procedural nuance — he sees someone who could have fought harder and didn't.
What Trump is really selling with his support of Paxton is more than just a Senate vote. Trump wants Republicans who will fight for his agenda, and he sees the establishment as not fighting hard enough. Cornyn may have been a reliable vote, but establishment Republicans have left the SAVE America Act sitting idle in the Senate. Cornyn got caught holding the institutional bag. If there was a path that could have saved him, it ran straight through that bill.
