Cornyn endorsed Trump for president. Is the Texas senator jockeying for a leadership post?

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn dropped a bombshell — or perhaps a tactical shot — when he suddenly endorsed former President Donald Trump as the results were still coming in the night of the New Hampshire GOP primary.

“I have seen enough,” Cornyn, whose support for the former president has always been less than full-throated, said of Trump’s strong showing in beating former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley by 11 percentage points in New Hampshire.

“To beat Biden, Republicans need to unite around a single candidate, and it’s clear that President Trump is Republican voters’ choice,” the senior senator from Texas posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Jan. 23.

But how much of Cornyn's endorsement was to recognize Trump’s likely nomination and how much was to position himself in a possible three-way Senate leadership election after the November presidential contest?

“Cornyn is acknowledging the inevitable,” Rice University political science professor Mark P. Jones said of Trump’s selection as the GOP nominee.

But Cornyn’s timing is strategic.

“This has more to do with Cornyn positioning himself in the leadership scrum,” Jones said.

The Texas senator is one of the “three Johns” — as the senators with the same first name are known — who want to succeed Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky: Senate GOP Whip John Thune of South Dakota, who holds the second-most powerful position; Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, chair of the Senate Republican Conference, the third-ranking member of leadership; and Cornyn, a former whip who is a McConnell confidant.

When reached for comment Monday, Cornyn's office pointed the American-Statesman to a previous statement by the senator: "I've made no secret of the fact that when the time comes, I'd be interested in being considered by my colleagues. I don't know when that's going to be. I know it's not now."

Cornyn served as GOP whip from 2013 to 2019 — two years in the minority and four years in the majority — but was term-limited by GOP rules. Since then, he has frequently said he wants to be leader once McConnell steps down.

Although McConnell has not definitively said whether he will run again for Senate leader, there is speculation that because of past health incidents last year in which he “froze” during news conferences and a restive conservative faction that challenged him in 2022, he would step aside. (He is not up for reelection to the Senate.)

The leader election is very personal — limited to the GOP members of the Senate. There are now 49 Republican senators, and the GOP must defend 10 seats in the November election, including in Texas, where Ted Cruz is seeking a third term. The vote for Senate leader follows the general election.

Fueling the speculation that McConnell will bow out is the fact that polling shows Trump has a fighting chance to win reelection — McConnell has a testy relationship with the former president, whom he blames for the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in the U.S. Capitol — and would not want the Kentucky senator in the job, especially if the GOP retakes the majority.

Cornyn had not endorsed any candidate until Jan. 23; Thune had endorsed Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who has since dropped out and endorsed Trump; and Barasso endorsed Trump earlier this month after the Iowa caucuses.

“Like many other reluctant Republican elected officials, he's going along with the inevitable rather than risk crossing Trump,” said Jim Henson, executive director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas.

“The general sense that Cornyn is one of the three top contenders to replace McConnell when he exits seems to make sense to me, and certainly endorsing Trump would be consistent with that,” he said.

Cornyn will be up for reelection to a fifth six-year term in 2026.

For Texans, having a Senate leader from the Lone Star State would fill the clout deficit of not having Texas elected officials in top positions of power.

“John’s the most logical successor,” Bill Miller, an Austin consultant who advises both Democrats and Republicans, said of Cornyn. “That would be an advantage for Texas.”

In his tweet, Cornyn focused on the policy successes of the Trump administration — including appointing conservative federal judges, notably three Supreme Court judges, and passing a tax reform law — and contrasted them with what he said were the Biden administration's “failed domestic policies” on the border and the economy.

“I will be continuing to work to elect a Republican Senate majority and to elect President Trump in 2024,” Cornyn said.

Editor's note: In a follow up statement Tuesday morning, Cornyn's office pointed the Statesman's to the senator's past comments chiding the Biden administration as having a "pathetic performance."

"It's important for us to unify behind a single person, and that person is President Trump … thinking back over the four years that [Trump] was president and we were in the majority, we did a lot of really good stuff," Cornyn has said.  

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Cornyn wants Senate GOP leader's post. Is the Texas senator striking?