Republicans took the majority in the U.S. Senate this week, ending three years of Democratic majority in the chamber.
Now the party is in the market for a new majority leader, since Sen. Mitch McConnell announced earlier this year he would vacate the position even while he serves out his term in the Senate.
As names are being floated to fill that role, one is from the Lone Star State: John Cornyn.
Jeremy Wallace, who covers state politics for the Houston Chronicle, said Cornyn himself has thrown his hat in the ring.
“Everybody’s exhausted from the election, but maybe the most consequential election for Texas is going to come on Wednesday morning next week when John Cornyn is going to be competing against John Thune from South Dakota and Rick Scott from Florida to see who is going to be the majority leader,” Wallace said.
“(Texas) has not had a majority leader since LBJ made Mission Control part of Houston’s life. That’s what he was able to do with that position. It’s incredibly powerful. The things that you can do, not only influencing national decisions on big public policy issues, but also what you can bring home in terms of the bacon for the state is even more so as a Senate majority leader.”
» GET MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE: Sign up for Texas Standard’s weekly newsletters
Wallace said Cornyn has a lot going for him as he competes for the position of top Senate Republican.
“Just this morning, Cornyn was sending out releases to the media to talk about how over his career he’s raised over $400 million for other Republicans to help them in their races,” Wallace said. “This election is all behind the scenes, really. It’s all about negotiating with other senators to win their support. And it’s a secret ballot.
So what he needs to do is try to influence all of these people and say, ‘Look, I’ve been there for you for all these years. Make me the guy. I’ll watch your back. I’ll help you out.’ And so that’s what is going for him, that longevity in the Senate and how much money he’s raised for others. That easily eclipses what either John Thune of South Dakota or Rick Scott of Florida have been able to do over their shorter careers.”
Cornyn joined the Senate in 2002 and has experience in leadership.
“At one point, he was the majority whip, and what that means is that he was the second in command for Mitch McConnell for a stretch,” Wallace said. “He was the guy organizing the votes, making sure votes were where they were. That gave him a lot of chances to kind of negotiate with other senators. And so now Cornyn has all that experience. So he knows a lot of senators in a very intimate way in terms of getting their vote.”
At this point, the biggest unknown in the race is whether — and how — President-elect Donald Trump might weigh in.
“(Trump) has a history with all three of these people and not always great. At one point, John Cornyn, if people remember, had said that Donald Trump’s time has passed him by and the party should go for somebody else,” Wallace said. “He’s had to try to kind of rework that. And John Cornyn will remind anybody who brings that up, that, by the way, ‘I was just with Trump in Las Vegas on the campaign circuit.’”
But Wallace said Trump has proven willing to overlook such comments in the past.
“He seems to have a short memory for those types of things. He doesn’t carry grudges for years. You think of those fights with Ted Cruz and how they became friends later. Or Ben Carson, who then becomes a member of his cabinet,” Wallace said.
“He clearly can get over past slights pretty quickly. So for John Cornyn’s sake and John Thune’s, they’re hoping the only thing Donald Trump remembers is what happened the last couple of months.”
