John Cornyn
It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right. . . . Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife. Sen. John Cornyn advocating a constitutional ban on same sex marriage in a draft of his 2004 speech to the Heritage Foundation
John Cornyn, III, is a U.S. Senator for Texas, a seat he has held since 2002. Cornyn fought against any accountability for Donald Trump for inciting the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol and his efforts to overturn the election. Cornyn refused to call Biden the president-elect ahead of certification. Cornyn voted twice against impeaching Trump and he also asserted that post-presidential impeachment is unconstitutional. He also opposed creating an independent commission to investigate the insurrection. He objected to any investigation of right-wing political operative Ginni Thomas’ involvement in January 6 and argued that her husband, Justice Clarence Thomas, should be permitted to decide whether or not to recuse himself from cases related to the insurrection. He also defended Justice Samuel Alito after reports that flags associated with January 6 were flown above two of the justice’s homes. Cornyn has endorsed Trump in the 2024 election.
Cornyn has a long record as a Republican politician–as a state trial court judge, a Texas Supreme Court justice, Texas Attorney General, and as a U.S. Senator for more than twenty years–and he has cast numerous controversial votes on an array of issues. Among other policies, Cornyn has long opposed LGBTQ+ rights, including the Obergefell decision on marriage equality. He also pushed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and opposed federal legislation to protect same-sex and interracial marriage. The Senator has called it a “myth” that gay marriage would not harm society, claiming for example that “[if] the national culture teaches that marriage is just about adult love and not about raising children, then we should be troubled but not surprised by the results.” Cornyn has also opposed adoption by gay couples, as well as making anti-LGBTQ+ violence a federal crime. As a Texas Supreme Court justice, he also voted to keep anti-sodomy laws in place.
He has also worked to block democracy reforms that would “create[] federal standards for campaign finance, voting, redistricting, voter registration and election security,” which would address laws passed by Republican state legislatures disenfranchising voters of color.
He also helped secure the confirmation of the right-wing dominating the U.S. Supreme Court. He helped block hearings for Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Antonin Scalia in 2016, claiming the move was “[the] only way to empower the American people” but he insisted that the Senate vote for Trump’s nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the 2020 election was underway, securing Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation. When Democrats sought to postpone a hearing on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Court by Trump in order to review Kavanaugh’s record and writings, Cornyn accused them of “mob rule.”
If Sen. Mitch McConnell were to leave his post leading Senate Republicans, Cornyn could replace him. He previously served as McConnell’s right-hand man during the Trump administration, as the majority’s Whip, and he previously chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee that helped many of the Republican Senators win their elections.