In the wake of the Uvalde school shooting in 2022, U.S. Senator John Cornyn bucked his party’s base by leading the passage of a minor reform to federal gun laws. He tried to make his case in a speech to a hostile crowd at his own state’s GOP convention, persisting through 20 minutes of boos. After the bill was signed into law, Cornyn rode the high with a promise to strike a deal on another political third rail: immigration.
This sort of quasi-maverickism has earned Cornyn a reputation as the proverbial adult in the room, the closest thing Texas politics has to an elder statesman. Of course, Cornyn benefits from a generous grading curve thanks to peers like Senator Ted Cruz, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Governor Greg Abbott.
But reputations, especially when burnished with a senatorially silver coiffure, can be deceiving. Cornyn has no interest in following ex-Senators John McCain and Mitt Romney into maverick martyrdom. Any inkling of principle that Cornyn may show is eclipsed by his aims for higher power.
