Ken Paxton crushed John Cornyn by nearly 28 points in May.
Now the senator Texas rejected is using his final months to kill the agenda of the president Texas loves.
The man Texas just fired is now holding Trump's attorney general nomination hostage – and he's not acting alone.
Cornyn Is Blocking Todd Blanche Attorney General Confirmation
Todd Blanche – Trump's pick for attorney general – has been stuck in Senate Judiciary Committee limbo since last week, and John Cornyn is the reason.
Cornyn, a senior member of the committee, refused to vote to advance Blanche's nomination, demanding written guarantees that the $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund – money set aside to compensate Americans who were politically persecuted by the Biden DOJ – be permanently shut down.
He canceled a scheduled meeting with Blanche, issued an ultimatum, and when the administration didn't capitulate fast enough, pulled Thursday's committee vote entirely.
Trump responded on Truth Social, calling Blanche outstanding and noting that Cornyn – whose political career Trump ended by endorsing Ken Paxton – was blocking a nominee backed by law enforcement across the country.
The president added that he would temporarily withdraw Blanche's nomination rather than give Cornyn the leverage he's demanding, and resubmit it the moment Cornyn is gone from the Senate.
Gone. Five months from now.
That is how much weight John Cornyn's objections carry with the man he claims to support.
The Merrick Garland Problem Nobody Can Explain Away
In February 2021, Cornyn voted to advance Merrick Garland's nomination for attorney general – and praised him at the time for his "commitment to depoliticizing the Justice Department."
Garland went on to run the most politicized DOJ in modern American history, weaponizing federal prosecutors against parents at school board meetings, siccing the FBI on pro-life activists, and turning the Justice Department into an instrument of Democrat Party vengeance.
Now the same senator who cleared Garland is blocking Todd Blanche – over a procedural dispute about a compensation fund for J6 defendants and Biden-era political targets.
Cornyn cleared the man who built the machine and is now blocking the man sent to dismantle it – which has nothing to do with principle and everything to do with settling personal scores on his way out the door.
Senate RINOs Blocking Trump Agenda Use Cornyn as Their Human Shield
Cornyn did not defend his position on the merits – he announced that unnamed Republican colleagues secretly agree with him, essentially daring Trump and conservative voters to figure out who they are.
Federalist editor Sean Davis saw the play immediately: "Which GOP senators are lying to their voters and using you as a human shield because your career is over? Every time he opens his mouth, he increases the likelihood that voters fire even more of his friends."
Cornyn believes the threat of a larger RINO coalition gives him negotiating power. What it actually does is give Republican primary voters a list of targets they didn't know existed.
Texas fired Cornyn with 63.8 percent of the vote. The next round of voters in other states can read a scorecard.
John Cornyn RINO Record Gun Control Amnesty Ukraine
Cornyn's record built this moment.
While Texas voters were demanding border enforcement, Cornyn flew to Kyiv to take photographs with Zelensky and voted to send $40 billion to Ukraine.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – his signature gun bill – handed federal bureaucrats new tools to disarm law-abiding Americans. Years of amnesty negotiations with Democrats went nowhere except further from what his constituents wanted.
And the Juneteenth federal holiday he championed is now an annual platform for the left to call America a white supremacist nation.
Through all of it, he called himself a Texas conservative.
The final margin – Paxton 63.8, Cornyn 36.2 – was not a rebuke. It was a verdict.
And Cornyn's response to that verdict has been to spend his remaining months proving every critic right.
Steve Bannon said it on WarRoom: "Nobody's going to remember the other 30 years you leeched off the system. They're going to remember the final humiliation."
Cornyn had a path to a dignified exit. He chose this instead.
Sources:
- Gabby Birenbaum, "Cornyn imperils Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination," The Texas Tribune, July 29, 2026.
- Rusty Weiss, "Trump Puts Cornyn and Tillis on Notice Over Blanche — and the Anti-Weaponization Bill," RedState, August 1, 2026.
- Matt Vespa, "John Cornyn's Final Act Seems to Be Focused on Nuking Trump's Attorney General Nominee," Townhall, July 30, 2026.
- Ayden Runnels, "Ken Paxton defeats John Cornyn in Texas U.S. Senate GOP runoff," The Texas Tribune, May 27, 2026.
- "Ken Paxton cruises to big win against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in Texas GOP primary runoff," Houston Public Media, May 27, 2026.