Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks during a Senate Finance Committee hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
The Senate Majority Leader's endorsement came a couple of hours after Cornyn — who previously served six years as the No. 2 Republican in the Senate — officially launched his 2026 re-election campaign, as he bids for a fifth six-year term representing Texas on Capitol Hill.
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The backing from Thune, which was widely expected, comes as the 73-year-old Cornyn faces a possible primary challenge from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The conservative and MAGA firebrand who's an ally of President Donald Trump has repeatedly for a couple of years flirted with taking on Cornyn.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, on August 5, 2022. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
Paxton has claimed Cornyn does not represent the conservative values of Texans and accused him of not being an ally of Trump.
He has also regularly labeled Cornyn a "RINO," a "Republican in name only" and an insult MAGA and "America First" Republicans have regularly used to criticize more mainstream or establishment members of the GOP.
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Cornyn, during the early stages of the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race, had said he would prefer that the GOP take a new direction, which angered Trump. But the senator endorsed Trump in late January of last year, after the then-former president won both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, the first two contests in the Republican White House calendar.
Since Trump returned to the White House two months ago, Cornyn has been supportive of the president's cabinet nominees and agenda.
And in the senator's campaign launch video, the announcer highlights that during Trump's first term in office, "Texas Sen. John Cornyn had his back."
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"Now I'm running for re-election and asking for your support so President Trump and I can pick up where we left off," Cornyn says to camera in the video.
Cornyn is a former state senator, former Texas Supreme Court justice, and former state attorney general, who first won election to the U.S. Senate in 2002.
Fox News' Peter Pinedo contributed to this report
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