After four terms in the US Senate, John Cornyn’s reelection should have been a cake walk. Instead, Texas voters delivered a thunderous rejection of Cornyn in yesterday’s primary runoff election. Lone Star State voters put their collective foot up his ass, voting him out by almost 30 points and sending him packing.
Texas voters never forgot that the spineless, weak-kneed traitor sold out gun owners for some fleetingly favorable media mentions and some brief DC cocktail party applause. Ken Paxton routed the four-term incumbent, ending the era of collegial, go-along-to-get-along senatorial establishmentarianism in the Lone Star State. Good riddance.
Cornyn wasn’t just another establishment RINO straggler—he was a treacherous architect of betrayal. While American gun control certainly wasn’t the only issue that contributed to his crushing defeat, Texans never forgot and they absolutely did not forgive.
His priorities were always clear: he wanted to be popular with his Senate pals and the DC cocktail circuit. Ukraine was a priority, not strong borders to protect his fellow Texans. Ranchers and factory workers were far down the list for this career politician. He embodied what’s now seen as the worst of the old GOP guard.
But nothing exposed Cornyn’s like his all-too-eager sellout on gun control. After the Uvalde shooting and amid the anti-gun hysteria, this supposed Texas conservative raced to work with Connecticut’s Chris Murphy and negotiate with Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden. He helped author and ram through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act—the most significant federal gun control legislation in decades. The bill expanded background checks, funded the expansion of red-flag laws that let courts strip gun rights without due process, cracked down on private transfers, and poured money into ATF enforcement.
Biden hailed it as a major win while Trump rightly warned it was a significant step toward broader civilian disarmament. Cornyn didn’t care. He stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Democrats to put it on Biden’s desk, shivving every gun-owning Texan – and American – in the back who trusted him to defend the Constitution.
It wasn’t “compromise,” it was surrender. Cornyn’s legacy is one of weakness, cozying up to the very administration that worked so hard to undermine the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens while criminals laughed. Texas saw it for what it was. They saw through the act and they remembered.
Cornyn’s crushing defeat sends a clear message: America is done tolerating squishes who talk a good talk a good game during campaigns, but don’t do a thing once they’re in office. Or worse yet, work to promote gun control and interests that aren’t those of their state or country. Cornyn’s political corpse is a warning to every other linguini-spined pol who goes native when they get to DC: your time is up.
It was a good day for the nation as well as Texas.