John Cornyn | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Official portrait, 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| United States Senator fromTexas | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office December 2, 2002 Serving with Ted Cruz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Phil Gramm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 49thAttorney General of Texas | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office January 13, 1999 – December 1, 2002 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Governor | George W. Bush Rick Perry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Dan Morales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Greg Abbott | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Justice of the Texas Supreme Court | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office January 2, 1991 – October 18, 1997 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Franklin Spears | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Deborah Hankinson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge of theTexas 37th Judicial District Court | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office January 1, 1985 – January 1, 1991 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Richard Woods | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Ann-Marie Aaron | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | John Cornyn III (1952-02-02)February 2, 1952 (age 73) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Republican | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | Trinity University (BA) St. Mary's University, Texas (JD) University of Virginia (LLM) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Senate website Campaign website | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
John Cornyn III (/ˈkɔːrnɪn/KOR-nin; born February 2, 1952) is an American politician, attorney, and former jurist serving as theseniorUnited States senator fromTexas, a seat he has held since 2002. A member of theRepublican Party, he served on theTexas Supreme Court from 1991 to 1997 and asTexas attorney general from 1999 to 2002.
Born inHouston, Cornyn is a graduate ofTrinity University andSt. Mary's University School of Law and received anLL.M. degree from theUniversity of Virginia School of Law. He was a judge on Texas's 37th District Court from 1985 to 1991.[1][2] He was elected an associate justice of theTexas Supreme Court, where he served from 1991 to 1997.
In 1998, Cornyn was elected Attorney General of Texas, serving one term before winning a seat in the U.S. Senate in2002. He was reelected in2008,2014, and2020. Cornyn chaired theNational Republican Senatorial Committee from 2009 to 2013, and served as theSenate majority whip for the114th and115th Congresses.[3][4]
Cornyn was born inHouston, the second child of Atholene Gale Cornyn (née Danley) and John Cornyn II, a colonel in theU.S. Air Force.[5] He attended theAmerican School in Japan after his family moved toTokyo in 1968, and graduated from it in 1969.[6] In 1973, he graduated fromTrinity University, where he majored injournalism and was a member of Chi Delta Tau.[7][8] Cornyn earned aJuris Doctor fromSt. Mary's University School of Law in 1977 and anLL.M. from theUniversity of Virginia School of Law in 1995.[9][10] He was named the St. Mary's Distinguished Law School Graduate in 1994, and a Trinity University Distinguished Alumnus in 2001.[11]
In 1988, Cornyn attended a two-week seminar atOxford University, jointly hosted by theNational Judicial College at theUniversity of Nevada, Reno andFlorida State University’s College of Law.[12] The seminar, held on the Oxford campus, was not academically affiliated with the university.[12]
Cornyn served as a district judge inSan Antonio for six years before being elected as a Republican in 1990 to theTexas Supreme Court, on which he served for seven years.
In1998, Cornyn ran forTexas attorney general. In the March Republican primary,Railroad CommissionerBarry Williamson received 38% of the vote, and Cornyn, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, received 32%.[13] In the April runoff election, Cornyn defeated Williamson, 58% to 42%.[14] Cornyn won the general election with 54% of the vote; he defeatedJim Mattox, a former Texas attorney general (1983–1991) andU.S. representative.[15] Cornyn was the first Republican-elected attorney general of Texas sinceReconstruction, and was sworn in by then-GovernorGeorge W. Bush.[11]
In September 2000, Cornyn created the Texas Internet Bureau to investigate illegal internet practices.[16] The Internet Bureau was funded through an $800,000 grant from Governor Bush’s office, and its mission was to "help fightcybercrime in Texas, including consumer fraud, hacker break-ins, and online child exploitation".[17] Cornyn investigated fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims.[18]
Cornyn was criticized by civil rights groups for failing to investigate in a timely manner the false drug convictions of numerous African Americans inTulia, Texas. On September 6, 2002,The Austin Chronicle reported that Cornyn had announced that his office would investigate the 1999 drug bust, where the testimony of one narcotics agent led to the arrests of 46 people, 43 of whom were Black.[19]
In 2005, Cornyn was mentioned as a possible replacement forSupreme Court JusticesSandra Day O'Connor andWilliam Rehnquist.[20]
In the 2002 Republican primary, Cornyn faced five opponents. Cornyn defeated his closest Republican challenger, the self-financed, Dallas-based international physician Bruce Rusty Lang, by a ten-to-one margin. In the general election, Cornyn defeated Democratic nomineeRon Kirk in a campaign that cost each candidate over $9 million.[21]
Texas had not elected a Democrat in a statewide election since 1994, and according toRasmussen Reports polling, Cornyn had an approval rating of 50% in October 2008.[22]Christian activistLarry Kilgore ofMansfield challenged Cornyn in the Republican primary, but Cornyn easily defeated him.[23]Texas RepresentativeRick Noriega won the March 4 Democratic primary against Gene Kelly, Ray McMurrey, and Rhett Smith. Yvonne Adams Schick was theLibertarian Party's nominee,[24] and theGreen Party of Texas sought ballot access for its candidate, David B. Collins.[25] The sameRasmussen poll showed Cornyn leading Noriega 47% to 43%, suggesting that the race might prove unexpectedly competitive, but most polls showed a much wider margin, and Cornyn was reelected.
Cornyn was reelected in 2014, and according to theDallas Morning News, "never broke a sweat."[26] He won the March Republican primary with 59% of the vote against Houston-area congressmanSteve Stockman.[26] In the general election, he raised $14 million, outspending Democratic nomineeDavid Alameel by nearly 3-1.[26] Cornyn won again by over 20 points.
Cornyn was reelected to a fourth term in 2020 in the closest of his Senate campaigns. He won the primary with 76% of the vote, and then defeated DemocratMJ Hegar in a race that theCook Political Report had initially rated "Likely Republican" but then shifted to "Lean Republican".[27] Cornyn received 5,962,983 votes—more than any Republican Senate candidate had ever received before, breaking the record set byPete Wilson of California in 1988. Hegar also set a record, getting more votes than any losing Democrat sinceLeo T. McCarthy in the 1988 California Senate race.
Cornyn has announced his candidacy for a fifth Senate termin 2026.[28] He facesTexas Attorney GeneralKen Paxton in the primary.[29]
In 2004, Cornyn co-founded and became the co-chairman of the U.S. Senate India Caucus.[30] In December 2006, he was selected by his colleagues to join the five-person Republican Senate leadership team as Vice Chairman of theSenate Republican Conference.[31]
In 2005, Cornyn gained notice by connecting the Supreme Court's reluctance to hear arguments for sustainingTerri Schiavo's life with the recent murders of JudgeJoan Lefkow's husband and mother, as well as the courtroom murder of JudgeRowland Barnes. Cornyn said: "I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions, yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up, and building up to the point where some people engage in violence."[32] His statement and a similar one by House Majority LeaderTom DeLay were widely denounced, including byThe New York Times.[33] Cornyn later said that the statement was taken out of context, and for that reason, he regretted the statement.[34]
On May 18, 2007, Cornyn was involved in a verbal altercation with SenatorJohn McCain.[35] During a meeting on immigration, McCain and Cornyn had a shouting match when Cornyn started questioning the number of judicial appeals that illegal immigrants could receive. McCain responded by yelling profanity and insults at Cornyn, and followed up with the assertion, "I know more about this than anyone else in the room." Previously, Cornyn told McCain: "Wait a second here. I've been sitting in here for all of these negotiations, and you just parachute in here on the last day. You're out of line."[36]
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As chairman of theNational Republican Senatorial Committee, Cornyn was a strong supporter ofNorm Coleman's variouscourt challenges to the 2008 election certification of the Minnesota U.S. Senate race.[37] Cornyn advocated for Coleman to bring the case before the federal court and said the trial and appeals could take years to complete.[38] Cornyn threatened that Republicans would wage a "World War III" if Senate Democrats had attempted to seat Democratic candidateAl Franken before the appeals were complete.[39] Coleman conceded after theMinnesota Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Franken had won the election.
Cornyn voted to confirmSamuel Alito as anAssociate Justice of the Supreme Court andJohn Roberts asChief Justice.[40] In September 2005, during Roberts's Supreme Court hearings, Cornyn's staff passed outbingo cards to reporters. He asked them to stamp their card every time a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee used terms such as "far right" or "extremist".[41] On July 24, 2009, Cornyn announced his intention to vote against PresidentObama's Supreme Court nomineeSonia Sotomayor, saying that she might rule "from a liberal, activist perspective".[42]
On the day of Obama's inauguration, it was reported that Cornyn would preventHillary Clinton from being confirmed assecretary of state by unanimous floor vote that day. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman reported to theAssociated Press that a roll call vote for the Clinton confirmation would be held instead on the following day, January 21, 2009, and that it was expected Clinton would "receive overwhelming bipartisan support".[43] The vote was 94–2 in her favor, with only SenatorsJim DeMint andDavid Vitter voting in opposition.[44]
On March 18, 2020, Cornyn blamed theCOVID-19 pandemic on cultural practices in China and mistakenly blamed China for theMERS andswine flu epidemics.[45] His comments were criticized by some Democrats and the National Council of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. At the time, the consensus among researchers was that coronavirus had originated at awet market inWuhan, China.[46][47]
On November 14, 2012, Cornyn was electedSenate Minority Whip by his peers.[48]
Cornyn was named Senate Majority Whip after the 2014 election, in which Republicans gained a Senate majority.[26][49]
After the death of Associate Supreme Court JusticeAntonin Scalia in February 2016, Cornyn said that anyone Obama nominated to replace him would have a difficult confirmation process and feel like apiñata.[50] He also said that no serious candidate would accept a nomination knowing that they would not be confirmed. When Obamanominated Merrick Garland to replace Scalia, Cornyn said that even if the president has the constitutional authority to nominate someone, the Senate has full authority on how to proceed. Cornyn also said that the voice of the people should play a role, and that the "only way to empower the American people" was having the vacancy be filled by the winner of the upcomingpresidential election, so no hearings on Garland should be held.[51][52] The Senate did not vote on Garland's nomination, which expired after the November election of PresidentDonald Trump. Trump nominatedNeil Gorsuch to the seat, and Gorsuch was confirmed. In September 2020, Cornyn supported a vote on Trump's nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by the death of JusticeRuth Bader Ginsburg. In March 2016, he took the position that the Senate should not consider Obama's Supreme Court nominee.[52]
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On June 8, 2017, during a committee hearing whose announced topic was the Russian interference in the 2016 election and Comey's dismissal as FBI director, Cornyn opted instead to spend his time questioningJames Comey onHillary Clinton's email controversy.[53]
In September 2018, during theSupreme Court nomination hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, Cornyn accused the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee of devolving into mob rule by breaking the rules of decorum when asking for postponement or adjournment of the hearing to obtain or review documents from Kavanaugh's time working for theGeorge W. Bush administration. Cornyn said that it was hard to believe the Democrats' claim that they could not properly assess Kavanaugh without the documents because it seemed that their minds were already made up.[54]
In February 2024, Cornyn announced he would run forRepublican leader afterMitch McConnell announced he would step down from his position at the end of the year.[55]
Following the2024 U.S. elections, in which theRepublicans carried the Senate, Cornyn was one of three announced candidates vying to be the nextSenate Majority Leader. The others wereRick Scott andJohn Thune.[56][57]
On November 12, 2024, SenatorMike Lee hosted a candidates forum, and theelection took place the next day.[56] It was held in a closed-door Republican caucus setting, and senators' votes were not publicized. Cornyn lost to Thune on the second ballot, 24-29.[citation needed]
Source:[58]
Political scientistsJohn M. Sides and Daniel J. Hopkins characterized Cornyn as "very conservative" in 2015.[61] In 2013,National Journal ranked Cornyn the 14th-mostconservative Senator.[62]The Dallas Morning News considered him a reliable ally of PresidentGeorge W. Bush on most issues.[63] In 2023, the Lugar Center ranked Cornyn fifth among senators for bipartisanship.[64]
In 2007, he voted against a bill that would expand federal funding forstem cell research that used human embryonic stem cells.[65][66][67] Instead, Cornyn pushed for "several alternatives that would use adult and cord blood stem cells for research [as those] methods have proven to be more productive, and they do not harm or destroy human embryos."[68] As an alternative, he supported the Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act to aid research into techniques of deriving pluripotent stem cells without harming or destroying human embryos.[68][69]
In 2019, when asked about an Alabama law that prohibited abortions, including in cases of rape or incest, Cornyn said it was an "Alabama state issue".[70]
In the 2004 debate surrounding theFederal Marriage Amendment, Cornyn released an advance copy of a speech he was to give atThe Heritage Foundation. In the speech, he wrote, "It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries abox turtle. But that does not mean it is right ... Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife." According to his office, he removed the reference to the box turtle in the actual speech,[71] butThe Washington Post ran the quote, as didThe Daily Show.[72][73]
Cornyn sponsored a bill to allow law enforcement to force anyone arrested or detained by federal authorities to provide samples of theirDNA, which would be recorded in a central database.[74]
In a February 24, 2019, tweet, Cornyn mocked dictatorship, centralized power and democratic socialism by quoting Italian fascist leaderBenito Mussolini as saying "We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become."[75]
On June 25, 2022, after the Supreme CourtoverturnedRoe v. Wade andPlanned Parenthood v. Casey, Cornyn tweeted, "Now doPlessy vs Ferguson/Brown vs Board of Education" in response to former PresidentBarack Obama condemning the reversal ofRoe in part because of its standing as "50 years of precedent". RepresentativeJoaquin Castro, who interpreted the tweet as advocating the return of segregation in schools, condemned the tweet as racist. Cornyn continued in another tweet, "Thank goodness some SCOTUS precedents are overruled";Brown had overturned more than 50 years of precedent regarding the doctrine of "separate but equal" as defined byPlessy.[76]
Cornyn has been described as an "immutable Trump ally".[77] He frequently praised Trump during most of his presidential term. But in the weeks before his reelection campaign, amid a tightening race with Democratic nomineeMJ Hegar, Cornyn began to distance himself from Trump. He said that he praised Trump in public but expressed disagreement with him in private.[78][79][80]
During Trump's presidency, Cornyn and fellow Texas SenatorTed Cruz contributed to the appointment of multiple conservative judges to federal courts with jurisdiction over Texas.[81][82][83][84]
Cornyn repeatedly defended Trump's decision to siphon resources from the Pentagon in order to build a wall on the Mexico border. In March and September 2019, he voted to ratify the maneuver, opposing congressional attempts to block Trump's action. But in late October 2020, as Cornyn was trying to distance himself from Trump, he claimed that he had never supported Trump's maneuver and that he opposed it.[85]
Cornyn warned Trump about anticipated negative effects of restructuring tariffs on Mexican exports, saying, "We're holding a gun to our own heads by doing this."[86] In January 2018, he was one of 36 Republican senators to sign a letter to Trump requesting that he preserve theNorth American Free Trade Agreement by modernizing it for the 21st-century economy.[87] Cornyn urged Trump to restart trade talks on theTrans Pacific Partnership, which Trump called "a disaster".[88]
In June 2020, amid reports that Russia had paid the Taliban bounties to kill American soldiers and that Trump had been briefed on the subject months earlier,[89] Cornyn defended an assertion by Trump that he had never been briefed on the subject. Cornyn said, "I think the president can't single-handedly remember everything, I'm sure, that he's briefed on."[90]
In response to reports that Trump would not be attendingJoe Biden's inauguration, Cornyn told Cruz and other lawmakers "see you there", implying that he planned to attend,[91] which he did.[92]
On May 28, 2021, Cornyn voted against creating an independent commission to investigate theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack.[93]
In December 2010, Cornyn was one of 26 senators to vote against the ratification ofNew Start,[94] a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia that obliges both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads and 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years, and provides a continuation of on-site inspections that halted whenSTART I expired the previous year. It was the first arms treaty with Russia in eight years.[95]
In 2013, Cornyn said that, despite the sequester, the Pentagon would actually see its budget increase.[96]
In April 2018, Cornyn was one of eight Republican senators to sign a letter toTreasury SecretarySteve Mnuchin and actingSecretary of StateJohn Sullivan expressing "deep concern" over aUnited Nations report exposing "North Korean sanctions evasion involving Russia and China" and asserting that the findings "demonstrate an elaborate and alarming military-venture between rogue, tyrannical states to avoid United States and international sanctions and inflict terror and death upon thousands of innocent people" while calling it "imperative that the United States provides a swift and appropriate response to the continued use of chemical weapons used byPresident Assad and his forces, and works to address the shortcomings in sanctions enforcement".[97]
Cornyn supported U.S. involvement in theSaudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[98][99] In December 2018 he said that the U.S. should stand withSaudi Arabia despite theassassination of Jamal Khashoggi, saying: "Saudi Arabia is fighting a proxy war against Iran in Yemen, and an overreaction, in my view, would mean that we cancel arms sales and simply abandon our ally."[98]
As Senate Majority Whip, Cornyn filed a resolution welcoming Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu, who was to address a joint meeting of Congress in March 2015, a resolution co-sponsored only by Republicans. Vice President Biden and numerous Senate and House Democrats said they would not attend the address.[100] Cornyn supported the Senate resolution expressing objection toUN Security Council Resolution 2334, which calledIsraeli settlement building in the occupiedPalestinian territories a flagrant violation of international law.[101]
Cornyn has been a vocal critic of thePeople's Republic of China. In August 2018, Cornyn urged the Trump administration to impose sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act against Chinese officials responsible forhuman rights abuses against theUyghurMuslim minority in western China'sXinjiang region.[102][103] In aWashington Post opinion piece, Cornyn wrote that widespread adoption ofHuawei technology could increase vulnerability to cyberattacks and endanger NATO troops engaged on 5G-equipped battlefields.[104]
Cornyn heightened hisanti-China advocacy during theCOVID-19 pandemic and theU.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He has been widely accused of spreading themisinformation thatMERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome, a disease first reported from theArabian Peninsula) and theSwine Flu (an epidemic that first emerged in North America) originated from China, because allegedly "people eat bats and snakes and dogs and things like that."[105] In addition to charges of racism, aWashington Post article has noted that "none of the diseases he mentioned are linked to dogs and snakes" and that rattlesnake-eating is not popular in China, but is in Cornyn's own Texas.[106]
Upon the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Cornyn tweeted that the U.S. still has 30,000 troops inTaiwan (formally the Republic of China); in fact, the U.S. has kept no troops in Taiwan since itnormalized relations with the People's Republic of China. Cornyn has since deleted the inaccurate tweet and refused to respond to queries about it.[107]
Following theRussian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Cornyn stated Americans had a "responsibility to support the Ukrainian people as they fight to defend their own sovereignty." While he advocated for sendingmilitary aid, he also warned of Russian PresidentVladimir Putin's unpredictable nature that could escalate the conflict.[108] Cornyn introduced theUkraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022,[109] and cosponsored bills that included statements of solidarity with Ukraine, continuing to supply resources to Ukrainian troops, and renewing the Lend-Lease Act after its expiration.[110][111] His views brought him into conflict with Texas Attorney GeneralKen Paxton, who criticized him in 2024 for voting in favor of a $95 million foreign aid package; after Paxton called him an "America LastRINO", Cornyn responded that Paxton should focus on hislegal proceedings and "spend less time pushing Russian propaganda".[112]
Cornyn voted to permanently repeal theestate tax and raise the estate tax exemption to $5 million. He voted in favor of $350 billion in tax cuts over 11 years and supported making theBush tax cuts permanent.[40][better source needed] He opposed extending the 2011 payroll tax holiday.[113] He voted for theEmergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 but against theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009.[citation needed]
In 2008, Cornyn voted for theTroubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), also known as theWall Street bailout,[114] and later voted to end the program.[115]
Cornyn voted against a measure recognizing that humans are causing climate change.[116] He was one of 22 senators to sign a letter to Trump urging him to withdraw the United States from theParis Agreement.[117] In May 2019, Cornyn said it was important that the United States take measures tocombat climate change, but condemned theGreen New Deal as proposed byAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez.[118] In April 2020, he stated that climate scientists' models of the effects of climate change do not use the "scientific method".[119]
In 2005, Cornyn voted against including oil and gas smokestacks inmercury regulations. He voted against factoringglobal warming into federal project planning, and against banningdrilling in theArctic National Wildlife Refuge. He also voted against removing oil and gas exploration subsidies.[40][better source needed] During his tenure in the Senate, Cornyn has scored 0% on theLeague of Conservation Voters' environmental scorecard, a system of ranking politicians according to their voting record on environmental legislation.[120]
Cornyn opposes theAffordable Care Act (Obamacare). He voted against it in 2009,[121] and played a leading role in the attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017.[122][123][124] He voted against theHealth Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.[125] Cornyn said that SenatorTed Cruz's 2013 efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act by threatening to default on the U.S. government's debt obligations were "unachievable", adding, "the shutdown did not help our cause. What did help our cause was the president's implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which has overwhelmed everything else. I don't hear anyone thinking that another government shutdown is the way to achieve our goals."[126] Cornyn joined other Republican leaders to block Cruz's procedural move to reject an increase in the debt ceiling.[127]
In January 2014, Cornyn introduced the "Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act". The bill would provide interstate reciprocity for persons with concealed weapons permits. Cornyn described the bill: "It's like a driver's license. It doesn't trump state laws. Say you have a carry permit in Texas; then you use it in another state that has a concealed-carry law."[128] He received an "A" rating from theNRA Political Victory Fund in 2003[40] and an "A+" in 2014[129][128][130] and 2022.[131] Cornyn continued to support Concealed Carry Reciprocity as of 2018, with the Republican-held House of Representatives passing a bill in late 2017 with this language attached to gun control measures from the Senate'sFix NICS bill.[132]
In 2017, Cornyn helped Democrats pass legislation designed to aid federal agencies in alerting, reporting and recording gun purchases by creating a universal cross-agency database.[133]
In 2022, in the wake of theRobb Elementary School shooting, Cornyn opposed further background check laws and those limiting the types of weapons that adults may purchase.[134] He later became one of ten Republican senators to support a bipartisan agreement on gun control, which included a red flag provision, support for state crisis intervention orders, funding for school safety resources, stronger background checks for buyers under 21, and penalties for straw purchases.[135]
While serving on theTexas Supreme Court in the 1990s, Cornyn ruled with the majority to overturn a lower court ruling,State v. Morales, that had found Texas'santi-sodomy laws to be unconstitutional.[136] During oral arguments, he questioned the merits of the case, asking how the anti-sodomy laws harmed gay people if the laws were not enforced.[136] According to Yale Law School professorWilliam Eskridge, Cornyn "engineered theMorales majority" that saved the sodomy law.[137] When running for the Senate in 2002, Cornyn defended the law.[138] In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Texas's sodomy law inLawrence v. Texas, ruling that anti-sodomy laws are unconstitutional.[139]
AfterLawrence v. Texas, Cornyn condemned the "startling display of judicial activism that so threatens our fundamental institutions and our values".[139] He said he worried that the Supreme Court would next overturn theDefense of Marriage Act, which prohibited recognition of same-sex marriage at the federal level,[140] and he played a leading role in trying to introduce a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage.[141][142][143][144][145] Cornyn argued that recognition of same-sex marriage harmed people in heterosexual marriages.[146] He claimed that children raised by gay couples are "at higher risk of a host of social ills", such as crime, drug use and dropping out of school,[147][148] and that same-sex marriage would put "more and more children at risk through a radical social experiment".[147] Cornyn opposed allowing gay couples to adopt children.[139]
In 2012, when President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage, Cornyn criticized Obama and accused him of trying to "divide the country".[149]
In 2021, when President Joe Biden reversed Trump's ban on transgender troops serving in the military, Cornyn accused Biden of dividing the country.[150][151]
In 2022, at the Supreme Court confirmation hearings ofKetanji Brown Jackson, Cornyn expressed his position that state governments ought to have the power to ban same-sex marriage.[152] The Supreme Court held inObergefell v. Hodges that the 14th amendment barred states from doing so.
Cornyn opposes profiting from memorabilia tied to convicted murderers, and has made several unsuccessful attempts to pass laws against it.[153][154][155]
In 2021, Cornyn helped Senate Republicans filibuster national election reform legislation. Cornyn described the bill, which exclusively received support from members of the Democratic Party, as a "politically-motivated federal takeover of our elections."[156]
Cornyn opposes theremoval of statues relating to the Confederate States of America. He has said, "I don't think we can go back and erase our history by removing statues."[157]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Cornyn (incumbent) | 1,470,669 | 76.04% | |
| Republican | Dwayne Stovall | 231,104 | 11.95% | |
| Republican | Mark Yancey | 124,864 | 6.46% | |
| Republican | John Anthony Castro | 86,916 | 4.49% | |
| Republican | Virgil Bierschwale | 20,494 | 1.06% | |
| Total votes | 1,934,047 | 100.0% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Cornyn (incumbent) | 5,962,983 | 53.51% | |
| Democratic | MJ Hegar | 4,888,764 | 43.87% | |
| Libertarian | Kerry McKennon | 209,722 | 1.88% | |
| People Over Politics Party | Cedric Jefferson | |||
| Human Rights Party | James Brumley | |||
| Independent | Arjun Srinivasan | |||
| Independent | Tim Smith | |||
| Independent | Ricardo Turullols-Bonilla | 678 | 0.01% | |
| Independent | Krisjiannis Vittato | |||
| Total votes | 100.0% | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Cornyn (incumbent) | 781,259 | 59.43% | |
| Republican | Steve Stockman | 251,577 | 19.13% | |
| Republican | Dwayne Stovall | 140,794 | 10.71% | |
| Republican | Linda Vega | 50,057 | 3.80% | |
| Republican | Ken Cope | 34,409 | 2.61% | |
| Republican | Chris Mapp | 23,535 | 1.79% | |
| Republican | Reid Reasor | 20,600 | 1.56% | |
| Republican | Curt Cleaver | 12,325 | 0.94% | |
| Total votes | 1,314,556 | 100.00% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Cornyn (incumbent) | 2,843,995 | 61.60% | |
| Democratic | David Alameel | 1,584,772 | 34.32% | |
| Libertarian | Rebecca Paddock | 132,829 | 2.87% | |
| Green | Emily Marie Sanchez | 54,075 | 1.17% | |
| Independent | Mohammed Tahiro | 1,158 | 0.02% | |
| Total votes | 4,616,829 | 100% | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Cornyn (incumbent) | 997,216 | 81.48% | |
| Republican | Larry Kilgore | 226,649 | 18.52% | |
| Total votes | 1,223,865 | 100% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Cornyn (incumbent) | 4,337,469 | 54.8% | |
| Democratic | Rick Noriega | 3,389,365 | 42.8% | |
| Libertarian | Yvonne Adams Schick | 185,241 | 2.3% | |
| Total votes | 7,912,075 | 100% | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Cornyn | 478,825 | 77% | |
| Republican | Bruce Rusty Lang | 46,907 | 8% | |
| Republican | Douglas Deffenbaugh | 43,611 | 7% | |
| Republican | Dudley Mooney | 32,202 | 5% | |
| Republican | Lawrence Cranberg | 17,757 | 3% | |
| Total votes | 619,302 | 100% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Cornyn | 2,480,991 | 55% | |
| Democratic | Ron Kirk | 1,946,681 | 43% | |
| Libertarian | Scott Jameson | 35,538 | 1% | |
| Green | Roy Williams | 25,051 | <1% | |
| Total votes | 4,488,261 | 100% | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Barry Williamson | 208,345 | 38% | |
| Republican | John Cornyn | 176,269 | 32% | |
| Republican | Tom Pauken | 162,180 | 30% | |
| Total votes | 546,794 | 100% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Cornyn | 135,130 | 58% | |
| Republican | Barry Williamson | 98,218 | 42% | |
| Total votes | 233,348 | 100% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Cornyn | 2,002,794 | 54% | |
| Democratic | Jim Mattox | 1,632,045 | 44% | |
| Libertarian | Mike Angwin | 57,604 | 2% | |
| Total votes | 3,691,443 | 100% | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Cornyn (incumbent) | 2,686,518 | 52% | |
| Democratic | Patrice Barron | 2,351,750 | 46% | |
| Libertarian | Thomas Stults | 129,203 | 2% | |
| Total votes | 5,167,471 | 100% | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
Cornyn and his wife, Sandy Hansen, have two daughters.[164] Cornyn receives pensions from three separate state and local governments in addition to his Senate salary.[165]
As of 2018, according to OpenSecrets.org, Cornyn's net worth was more than $1.8 million.[166]
The June [sic] 12 Politics column quoted Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) discussing gay marriage in a recent speech to the Heritage Foundation. The written text released by Cornyn's office contained the quote, but his office says the senator did not include it in his delivered remarks.
Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who is a chief backer of the amendment ...
Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who was a lead sponsor of the measure ...
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of the amendment's leading supporters.
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Franklin Spears | Associate Justice of the Texas Supreme Court 1991–1997 | Succeeded by Deborah Hankinson |
| Preceded by | Attorney General of Texas 1999–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Don Wittig | Republican nominee forAttorney General of Texas 1998 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromTexas (Class 2) 2002,2008,2014,2020 | Most recent |
| Preceded by | Vice Chair of the Senate Republican Conference 2007–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theNational Republican Senatorial Committee 2009–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Senate Republican Whip 2013–2019 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by Phil Gramm | U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Texas 2002–present Served alongside:Kay Hutchison,Ted Cruz | Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theSenate Ethics Committee 2007–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Senate Minority Whip 2013–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Dick Durbin | Senate Majority Whip 2015–2019 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Narcotics Caucus 2019–2021 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theSenate Narcotics Caucus 2021–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Narcotics Caucus 2025–present | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | Order of precedence of the United States as United States Senator | Succeeded by |
| United States senators by seniority 11th | ||
Statewide political officials ofTexas | ||
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| Supreme Court | ||
| Court of Criminal Appeals | ||
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| Class 2 | ||
  | Republic of Texas (1836–45) | |
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| State of Texas (1846–present) |
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| International | |
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| Other | |
