Cornyn Slaps Down Texas AG Ken Paxton For Attacking His Bid for Senate Leadership: ‘Hard to Run from Prison, Ken’
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) made his bid to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as the GOP Senate Leader official on Thursday, but first took a moment to spar with another Texas Republican, the state’s scandal-plagued attorney general Ken Paxton.
McConnell announced Wednesday that he would step down as Senate Minority Leader. He was first elected to the Senate in 1984 and became leader in 2006, making him the longest serving leader from either party in Senate history. Now 82, he has had a number of health scares in recent months and publicly clashed with former President Donald Trump, the presumptive presidential nominee who holds a seemingly unbreakable sway over a substantial section of the GOP base.
Cornyn has long been one of McConnell’s allies and top lieutenants since he joined the Senate after his 2002 election, serving as GOP Whip from 2013 to 2019 and chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee for several years, overseeing fundraising and campaign efforts to re-elect incumbent Republican senators. Both McConnell and Cornyn have held their posts as the party’s power has waxed and waned, switching titles from Majority Leader and Majority Whip to Minority Leader and Minority Whip.
As the longest serving Senate leader in American history, Mitch McConnell has made an indelible mark on this institution and the Republican Party. For more than 17 years, he has been the steady hand at the helm, guiding us through some of the most consequential debates and…
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) February 28, 2024
The Democrats retaking majority control of the Senate has been a chief complaint from McConnell’s critics among the far right wing of the party, and similar critiques are often lobbed at Cornyn as well.
Such was the focus of a post on The Platform Formerly Known as Twitter from Paxton on Wednesday, in response to media reports that Cornyn was eyeing throwing in his name to succeed McConnell. Paxton bashed his state’s senior senator for being “anti-Trump, anti-gun” and predicted Cornyn would have to be “focused on his highly competitive primary campaign in 2026.”
“Republicans deserve better in their next leader and Texans deserve another conservative Senator,” Paxton concluded, a not-so-subtle signal he’s personally eyeing a primary challenge to Cornyn.
It will be difficult for @JohnCornyn to be an effective leader since he is anti-Trump, anti-gun, and will be focused on his highly competitive primary campaign in 2026. Republicans deserve better in their next leader and Texans deserve another conservative Senator. https://t.co/IKJYcoXzat
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) February 29, 2024
Paxton managed to survive an impeachment effort last year, being impeached by the Texas House but acquitted by the Senate over multiple counts of corruption and bribery related to a complex scheme involving one of his top donors, expensive renovations to the kitchen at his home, and efforts to conceal an extramarital affair with a former aide.
That’s far from the only messy scandal swirling around Paxton. “Even in the long, sordid history of Texas political scandals, Paxton stands out,” reported the Texas Tribune last September. “The accusations leveled against him in 21 years of public life ranged from felonious to farcical: that he duped investors to whom he sold stock, profited from inside information on a land deal, made false claims in court about the 2020 presidential election, and purloined another lawyer’s expensive pen.” The securities fraud matter in particular poses a substantial threat to not just Paxton’s political career, but his personal freedom, with the criminal indictment from over eight years ago finally heading to trial this April.
Cornyn, a former Texas Attorney General and Texas Supreme Court Justice himself, clearly had these seedy bullet points from Paxton’s résumé on his mind when he crafted his response.
“Hard to run from prison, Ken,” was the senator’s pithy quote tweet.
Hard to run from prison, Ken https://t.co/6oQ3oMqjCN
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) February 29, 2024
Thursday morning, Punchbowl News senior congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio reported that Cornyn had officially announced his intention to run for GOP leader, posting that the senator “spoke with Trump yesterday and started calling around to individual GOP senators.”
NEWS — @JohnCornyn makes it official, announces intention to run for GOP leader
He spoke with Trump yesterday and started calling around to individual GOP senators pic.twitter.com/W4XF3lBk17
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) February 29, 2024
Desiderio shared a statement from Cornyn, which read:
The post Cornyn Slaps Down Texas AG Ken Paxton For Attacking His Bid for Senate Leadership: ‘Hard to Run from Prison, Ken’ first appeared on Mediaite.I am asking my Republican colleagues to give me the opportunity to succeed Leader McConnell. I have learned a lot during my time both in and out of Senate leadership. During my two terms as NSC Chair, we shrunk Democrats’ majority by five seats and laid the foundation to retake the majority in 2014. Then as the Republican Whip, I helped President Trump advance his agenda through the Senate, including passing historic tax reform and remaking our judiciary – including two Supreme Court Justices. Throughout my time I’ve built a track record of listening to colleagues and secking consensus, while leading the fight to stop bad policies that are harmful to our nation and the conservative cause.
I believe the Senate is broken – that is not news to anyone. The good news is that it can be fixed, and I intend to play a major role in fixing it. From experience, I have learned what works in the Senate and what does not, and I am confident Senate Republicans can restore our institution to the essential role it serves in our constitutional republic. We will improve communication, increase transparency, and ensure inclusion of every Member’s expertise and opinion. We will restore the important role of Senate committees and reestablish the regular appropriations process, rather than lurch from one crisis to another. And we will return power back to our members; there will be no more backroom deals or forced votes on bills without adequate time for review, debate, and amendment.
I am ready to get to work and look forward to continuing to engage with my colleagues.
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