According to Gateway Pundit, President Trump has so far refused to endorse Senator John Cornyn, a fixture of the GOP establishment, over Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a staunch MAGA ally, in a race that has become a proxy battle over the future direction of the Republican Party.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune, a key member of the Senate leadership and a reliable defender of the status quo in Washington, has been aggressively pushing Cornyn’s case despite the senator’s record of siding with Democrats on issues such as immigration and gun control.
January 16, 2026
Yet even Thune concedes that his lobbying campaign at Mar-a-Lago has gone nowhere. “We’ve tried,” he told PunchBowl News. “And the president obviously is not, at this point at least, willing to make an endorsement there.”
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Thune suggested that Trump’s stance could evolve but acknowledged that, for now, the candidates will have to win over voters without presidential intervention. “So maybe at some point that changes. But as of right now, they’re gonna, I think, duke it out in the primary.”
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POLITICO reported that Cornyn personally appealed to President Trump for his backing, only to be turned down. Their account noted that “In Texas, Cornyn this year is on better terms with Trump, who previously called him a ‘RINO Republican’ over his role in helping negotiate bipartisan gun safety legislation during former President Joe Biden’s term.”
The report added that the White House views the contest as a three-way race among Trump-friendly candidates and is content to let that dynamic play out. “As the White House sees it, Trump now has three friends in the race, and Cornyn and his challengers — Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt — have leaned into being Trump loyalists throughout the primary, a dynamic that the White House is in no hurry to change.”
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Cornyn himself acknowledged that his request for Trump’s endorsement was rebuffed. “Cornyn recently asked Trump for his endorsement, the senator told the Houston Chronicle, and Trump told Cornyn that he’s not ready to grant it.”
Cornyn’s campaign insists relations remain cordial despite the snub. Cornyn campaign senior adviser Matt Mackowiak said that Cornyn remains on good terms with the president.
“Senator Cornyn speaks to President Trump regularly and works closely with the White House,” he said. “He is proud to have voted 99.3% with President Trump while in office.”
For now, the grassroots energy appears to favor Paxton, who holds a razor-thin 0.3-point edge over Cornyn in the RealClearPolitics polling average, with Rep. Wesley Hunt lagging at 19 percent support, underscoring how deeply conservative voters are rethinking their loyalty to long-time incumbents who strayed on core issues like the Second Amendment and border security.
