AUSTIN, TEXAS — Just one hour after polls closed on Tuesday for the Texas Republican Senate primary runoff, Sen. John Cornyn spoke to reporters in a small closed-off conference room of a JW Marriott in downtown Austin where there were no supporters, no music and no fanfare.
It was a painful end for the four-term senator, but in the end, not an unexpected one. Cornyn, the former GOP majority whip, and for the better part of a quarter-century, the most recognizable face of Texas Republicans, lost his party’s nomination to state Attorney General Ken Paxton — a man indicted, impeached, never far from controversy and notably one of President Donald Trump’s biggest allies.
The defeat makes Cornyn the second sitting Republican senator ousted by a lack of sufficient Trump support in as many weeks. Tuesday marked the end of a lifelong political career, which he wasn’t ready to end just yet.