Children of the Cornyn

Senator John Cornyn is fighting for his life in the Texas Republican runoff against a deeply flawed opponent. He’s also a symbol of what ails his party in the Trump era—and a cautionary tale for why money can’t fix everything.

As a vestige of the pre-Trump G.O.P. and a former two-term chairman of the N.R.S.C., Cornyn lived through the turbulent 2010-2012 era, when the Republican establishment saw its incumbents and favored candidates fall to fatally flawed Tea Party candidates who twice cost them the Senate majority. Cornyn helped write the playbook for dealing with this threat, and now he’s deploying it himself: Run your primary campaign like your life depends on it. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Abby Livingston

March 16, 2026

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Republican John Cornyn, the four-term senior senator from Texas, is suddenly fighting for his political life to hold the seat he’s occupied for more than two decades. Party operatives have practically begged Donald Trump to jump into the primary runoff race and endorse Cornyn over his scandal-plagued but scrappy opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. And yet, Trump has held off—perhaps because he views the dangling sword over Cornyn’s head as leverage, or he sees a bit of himself in Paxton. Either way, it’s hardly clear whether a belated Trump nod would drag Cornyn over the finish line.