WASHINGTON – Sen. John Cornyn has joined the anyone-but-Trump caucus, becoming the most prominent Texas Republican to shun the former president’s 2024 comeback bid.
“We need to come up with an alternative,” Cornyn said. “I think President Trump’s time has passed him by and what’s the most important thing to me is we have a candidate who can actually win.”
Cornyn made the comment in a call Thursday afternoon with Texas reporters, when asked by The Dallas Morning News whether Trump’s performance on a prime-time CNN town hall last week gave him pause about the ex-president’s efforts to win the party’s nomination.
Trump is currently the prohibitive favorite to win the Republican nomination, supported by 56% of Republican voters nationally in an average of the most recent polls. That’s almost triple the support for the next most popular potential pick, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump’s lead is commanding but slightly smaller in New Hampshire, which hosts the first primary.
Cornyn emphasized the difference between rounding up support to win primaries and appealing to less partisan voters needed in the general election. Trump trailed President Joe Biden nationally by 7 million votes in 2020, out of 155 million.
“To me, this all boils down to electability. I’ve been through quite a few elections in my life. And there’s no prize for coming in second. In other words, losing,” Cornyn said. “Unless you can win an election, you don’t get to govern your priorities.”
And Trump, he said, has shown an inability or unwillingness to broaden his appeal.
“I don’t think President Trump understands that when you run in a general election, you have to appeal to voters beyond your base. There’s no question that President Trump has some enthusiastic supporters as part of his base. That works well for him in a Republican primary, but not well when you need to expand your appeal in a general election,” he said.
It’s a much firmer anti-Trump stance than Cornyn took last week after Trump’s May 10 televised town hall. Then, he told CNN that he’s concerned about Trump’s electability but is “happy to let the process play out” during the primaries.”
“He’s got a unique ability to rally his base, but not to grow beyond his base, which is a problem,” Cornyn said last week.
Trump’s town hall was held one day after a New York City jury found him liable for sexually abusing former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll decades ago, then defaming her, and ordered him to pay $5 million in damages. On CNN, he called her a “whack job” and reiterated his assertion that she fabricated the accusations– the stance the jury had deemed defamatory.
Among the many revelations that CNN’s Kaitlan Collins elicited during the town hall: Trump intends to pardon many of the rioters convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. He continues to maintain that fraud and cheating cost him the election. He does not see victory by Ukraine over Russia as a goal.
Cornyn, a top lieutenant and potential successor to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, declined to pick a favorite among the other GOP contenders.
“I know several of them and they’re friends,” he said. “If they can win, I’ll be happy to support them.”
DeSantis, he said, has “been very successful in Florida,” which shows some ability to win crossover votes.
“DeSantis has shown he can. Nikki Haley has shown that she can. Tim Scott has shown he can,” Cornyn said, referring South Carolina’s former governor, Haley, and one of its current senators, Scott.
“That’s an important lesson to learn from 2020, that you’ve got to do more than just turn out your enthusiastic base of support,” Cornyn said. “I just want to win and we need a candidate who can win.”
Asked about Will Hurd, the former Texas congressman, who has also been testing the waters, Cornyn said he’s the right kind of person. Smart guy, good character. He would be in it for all the right reasons.”
Hurd, a former CIA officer, has cast himself as a thoughtful moderate who can work with anyone and lower the temperature in a bitterly partisan capital.
“He could do that someday,” Cornyn said of Hurd’s White House aspirations. “I’m not sure that he’s got the name ID and the visibility he would need in order to mount a race.”
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