Don’t Count on Senator Cornyn to Endorse Senator Cruz Come 2018
Reaping what was sown
When Senator Cornyn ran for re-election in 2014 he received a bevy of endorsements, but one was missing — that of Texas’ Junior Senator Cruz.
Cornyn easily won the primary and went on to win the general election handily, maintaining his status as the number two ranking Senate Republican.
On CNN Thursday, Cornyn indicated he has zero plans to endorse his Senate companion.
Sure, it’s only 2016, but Cornyn’s numerous attempts to bring Cruz into the fold were repeatedly rebuffed. Their relationship was further strained when Cornyn killed a would-be Cruz filibuster over the debt ceiling.
Cornyn told CNN on Wednesday that he would not take sides in a primary between Cruz and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, who is considering a run. Cruz in 2014 declined to endorse Cornyn in the primary.
“I’m not going to get involved in any primary races particularly with my colleagues in the Senate,” Cornyn said. “We’ll see what happens, but we’ve got plenty to worry about between now and November 2016 before we start worrying about November 2018.”
Cornyn said he is “not recruiting anybody” to challenge Cruz but sees “no benefit to anyone to get involved in the contested Republican primary.”
“I would sit on the sidelines and watch with interest,” Cornyn said.
When Cruz ran for Senate in 2012, beating David Dewhurst in the primary runoff, many a rank and file Texas Republican cast their lots with the Tea Party darling. And then Cruz got to the Hill. There, his roguish ways rubbed those same Lone Star Republicans the wrong way, leaving them disenchanted with their untested gamble.
Cruz is still a hometown favorite, but the widespread grassroot support that catapulted him to an unlikely 2012 victory shrunk when dropped out of the presidential race earlier this year.
Months ago, Cruz was considered all but unbeatable in his reelection bid. But after dropping out of the presidential race and declining to endorse Donald Trump in a prime-time speech at the GOP convention, Cruz may be vulnerable.
Alternatively, a poor performance by Trump in the general election may allow Cruz to make the argument that the party should never have strayed from his brand of conservatism, which is targeted at small-government purists and evangelical Christians.
…
Cruz and Cornyn have also been at odds over tactics in the Senate, which came to a head when Cornyn shut down a 2014 Cruz filibuster of a measure to raise the debt ceiling.
Cornyn called the action against Cruz “an uncomfortable moment.”
“Obviously I would have loved for Ted and I to be exactly two peas in a pod on everything,” he told the American-Statesman editorial board at the time.
Obamacare by holding up passage of a continuing resolution to keep the government going. Cruz was blamed by some for the government shutdown that followed; Cruz blamed President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats.
Cornyn never endorsed a candidate during the Republican presidential nominating contests. Speaking to KERA-TV in April, Cornyn said of Cruz, “Clearly, he didn’t come here to remain in the Senate. He came here to run for president.”
Cruz again refused to fall in line with party betters when he appealed to Republican voters at the Republican National Convention to “vote their conscience” rather than explicitly asking for support of the GOP nominee, Donald Trump.
On the other hand, Cornyn hopes the party will unite behind Trump.
Some speculate Rep. Michael McCaul will mount a Senate primary challenge in 2018, but McCaul insists he’s focused on winning re-election to the House. McCaul has served in the House since 2005 and is currently the Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. Will he run for Senate? He hasn’t said one way or another…yet.
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Comments
The sooner they’re rid of Cruz and the freedom caucus then they can really get down to business. Gotta love the GOP. They’ve almost completely excised the tea party tumor.
Cornyn is a sly player, always skimming the edge. Can’t blame him for keeping his distance from Cruz. Priebus has proven they will spend lavishly on primary challengers they can control.
Socialists that now comprise the DNC are in full agreement with you.
Cornyn is a traitor just like the rest of the GOP!
“Traitor” is the word that I often think when I see Cornyn in action. He is hard-core GOPe. Do not trust him.
The “problem” with Cruz according to the GOP is that he chooses to die on every hill. The real problem with the GOP though is that they never choose a hill to die on. Obama says “jump” and they ask “how high?” Sure Cruz might be considered by some an obstructionist, but when have you ever heard the Democrats compromise on anything in the past 10 years?
Yet another proof point that Cruz was the real anti-establishment candidate. They know Trump will surrender.
As a Texan, I am ashamed that Cornyn is my senator. He has become just another democrat self identifying as a republican. His position on the sentencing reform measure and his failure to stand up to Obama shows his true lack of character and integrity.
“John Wayne” Corny (as we call him in Texas after his last campaign) is a big, fat liar. He went all “John Wayne” on the border, talking a big game like McAnus did to win re-election. Of course, that was all BS.
IIRC, Corny didn’t endorse Cruz last time, either. No big loss to Cruz.
OTOH, Corny hasn’t said he’ll endorse anyone else, either. When his next election cycle comes up, I’ll be one of those many Texans who’ll be looking to replace him with a real conservative.
The Dallas Morning News, which is nominally Republican in its editorial board, for the first time in decades endorsed a Deemocrat for POTUS, and noted in an editorial that T-rump is no Republican.
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20160906-donald-trump-is-no-republican.ece
So Corny deciding to bite Cruz’s ankles may not be such a “winning” position.
I was going to make that point, Rags. Cornyn didn’t endorse Cruz in 2012; if anyone is reaping what he sowed, it’s Cornyn. Though I doubt Cruz is refraining from endorsing Cornyn out of spite (actually, I doubt Cornyn is being spiteful, either. They are just different.).
Hard to believe Cruz would expect an endorsement from Cornyn.
What’s a LOT harder is to find any support for your comment.
You never surprise me – you are always good for some unnecessary AH remark to anyone you disagree with. My comment about Cruz was not insulting to him – it was just a statement. Only a Cruz suckup would have felt it warranted your type of response. Unless I missed the memo I did not think LI had become a Cruz only site.
“My comment about Cruz was not insulting to him – it was just a statement.”
Nonsense. You assumed he wanted/cared about/sought an endorsement from Coryn. There’s not a shred of support for that.
Is there, AH?
The Bonehead Jacobin Rags continues to show his obsession with Cruz. I didn’t take KattieJane statement as a negative for Cruz, but one against Cornyn.
I would think you would like that statement, but instead lashed out at KattieJane. What’s the deal? Is it that time of the month?
If you want your messiah Cruz to be better accepted by the rest of us out here, you really need to rethink your approach because every time you write something the more I think Cruz is moving down the power ranks of being influential. Keep talking and he will soon be irrelevant. Sad thing, because I had high hopes for Cruz. I never considered him a good POTUS pick, but his positions on issues look good to me. His ability to deliver seems to be getting less and less every day. I am starting to think he does not work well with others.
The stupid historical ignoramus MarkSmith doesn’t know what “Jacobin” means, and he certainly can’t apply it to anything relevant to today…much less to me.
It’s just a “boy, am I smart” handwaving by a boob…who really isn’t smart at all.
Oh poor baby, must have hit a nerve, unlike “bonehead. Must be closer to home being a Jacobin, I contend that you subscript to a false belief that Cruz is your answer to everything, just like the Jefferson clan thought that (wrongly) the revolting French were the answer to everything.
Yea, you are not a racial, left nut wing case as some are called Jacobins, but you have lost your objectivity just like Jacobin’s do. So why don’t you tell us why you are not a Jaoobin, if you dare. Like Madison and the Constitution, Madison lost his way from the Constitution to fall in love with the French Revolt. In your case, you have fallen in Love with Cruz and have lost the objectivity of the conservative movement and the means to getting our issues acceptable. Cruz has failed us here. Like it was previously said, “Cruz wants to take every hill instead of the important ones.”
Yep. As I figured. All you have is a swirling milk-shit-shake of nonsense, pretending some historicity, and having absolutely NOTHING to do with today, me, or Cruz.
What a stupid pretender. Happy to have exposed you.
Yep, you got me and my swirling milk-shit-shake of nonsense . I am exposed, oh no, what am I going to do now? I think I am going to loss sleep over this. I hang my head in shame…..thanks, you made my day and proved my point that you have lost all your objectivity. BJ Rags rules the world.
Mark, as a presumed Co-Owner of this here once legal blog, Rags the UnMagnificent, feels obligated to rain thunder and lighting, or in his once native language “Sturm und Drang,” down on any statement he dislikes.
Rags’ responses are now part and parcel of reading this blog; suffering his wrath a part of blog life now; Rags: a permanent blog troll.
When I’m attacked…BY NAME…by one of the various dimwits here who make it a practice…
how is my response “trolling” on my part?
Troll.
Well, now you’re sounding like one of the lying liars and bullying bullyer bullies who are put on this earth just to detract from Rag’s brilliance.
BJ Rag’s says “When I’m attacked…BY NAME” …kind sounds Trump like. You should have some compassion for the guy.
said the proud stupid historical ignoramus 🙂
Yes, that evil Cruz, because no one ever wants the Government to shut down. Why if it did, then none of the useless unionized drones could go to work and the roads around here would be easy to drive in the morning and evening. What would happen if the government “shut down”?
– All government agencies would still function with the “priority personnel” still there.
– The DOJ/DOE/DOD et al would still function because they always do.
– Obama would only instruct the unionized drones to close off the most visible national parks, because the Park Service would be closed except all of the actual bureaucrats and rangers would still be there to actually make sure no one entered a national park so they would be getting paid.
– in the end, an actual government shutdown means that 95% of the government is still at work functioning and those not actually at work will get 100% of their pay when they get back to work.
The whole “government shutdown” thing is a joke on the American people. The UIVs always think we’re unprotected and vulnerable because the government isn’t there to take care of us.
Sickening.
Actually shutting down the government does have an impact on the contractors. It does mean that stuff does not get done because the actual workers (contracts) are not working the jobs the government workers are suppose to be working.
What is even worst is that the government workers still get paid for their time off when the government shuts down.
What they should do is shut down the government workers and make sure the contractors can do their job. You would then see ab 100% improvement in how our government operations.
BTW, Ms. Kayne, wouldn’t that be “Reaping what is sown”? Because we reap what we sow.
The man with a Liberty Score of 44% won’t endorse a man with a Liberty Score of 97%. I might be wrong, but I doubt conservative voters care.
Cruz all the way for mayor of Amarillo, 2024. Windsor Ontario, eh?
‘Big John’ Cornyn – a Bush guy from the beginning – was one of the Sen’tors that chipped in $50k to Mitch Mcconnell’s Senatorial Election Cmte to get MS Sen’tor (R) Thad Cochran reelected in his tight primary race last time, using Democrat crossover voters. Guy is a weasel.
I for one know I will be donating to whomever chooses to run against Cornyn. He is a RINO who votes with the O Administration every chance he gets.