{"id":452939,"date":"2025-12-17T09:44:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T09:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/452939\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T09:44:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T09:44:22","slug":"sen-john-cornyn-rolls-out-endorsement-list-as-primary-challenge-heats-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/452939\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. John Cornyn rolls out endorsement list as primary challenge heats up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"U.S.U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is lining up high-profile endorsements. Credit: Wikimedia Commons \/ Chief National Guard Bureau<\/p>\n

A new and lengthy list of endorsements from prominent San Antonio GOP officeholders and business leaders for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn shines light on the four-term incumbent\u2019s strategy as he heads into a tough primary season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Texas Republican\u2019s campaign released a list exclusively to the Current of more than 40 prominent Alamo City conservatives backing his reelection. They range from former House members Henry Bonilla and Lamar Smith to one-time Bexar County Commissioner Trish DeBerry and businessman Charlie Amato, who chairs financial-services firm SWBC.<\/p>\n

The Cornyn campaign has also rolled out dozens of endorsements from the Dallas and Houston areas along with 200 from the state\u2019s Rio Grande Valley and border region.<\/p>\n

Cornyn\u2019s strategy of lining up a deep bench of endorsements appears to be a bid to remind voters in deep-red Texas that he\u2019s continued to toe the Republican Party line and deliver on its agenda even as his two MAGA primary challengers question his bonafides. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are building a statewide organization that harnesses the broad and deep political support that Sen. Cornyn has earned over his time in public office,\u201d senior Cornyn campaign advisor Matt Mackowiak told the Current via email. \u201cThere is enthusiasm for Sen. Cornyn\u2019s re-election across all 254 counties in our state and we will continue to roll out regional supporter lists throughout the primary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornyn \u2014\u00a0a pro-business conservative who grew up in San Antonio and began his political career here \u2014\u00a0faces Texas Attorney General\u00a0Ken Paxton\u00a0<\/strong>and U.S. Rep.\u00a0<\/strong>Wesley Hunt in what\u2019s expected to be a bruising GOP primary.<\/p>\n

Although Cornyn benefits from a hefty war chest<\/a>, high-profile Trump allies Paxton and Hunt have vied to paint him as a RINO, or Republican In Name Only. Paxton heads into the contest with high name recognition among GOP primary voters, but he\u2019s also dragging along scandals including his near-impeachment by Texas Legislature and alleged affair with a married Christian influencer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An October poll of likely Republican primary voters<\/a>\u00a0by the University of Houston\u2019s Hobby School of Public Affairs and Texas Southern University\u2019s Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs shows Cornyn and Paxton polling nearly evenly and both more than 10 points ahead of Hunt. <\/p>\n

Whoever wins the Republican primary is likely to face off against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas or Texas Rep. James Talarico of the Austin area in the general. Both Crockett and Talarico are considered rising stars in the Democratic Party, and political observers have given them more likely odds<\/a> to win over the scandal-plagued Paxton than Cornyn. <\/p>\n

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