John Cornyn becomes first Republican to announce bid to replace McConnell

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Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas has thrown his hat into the ring to replace departing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, changing into the first member of his occasion to accomplish that.

Mr Cornyn, a detailed ally of the minority chief, launched a press release saying his candidacy during which he pledged to finish “backroom deals” and provides members sufficient time to learn laws earlier than it’s voted upon.

“I believe the Senate is broken – that is not news to anyone. The good news is that it can be fixed, and I intend to play a major role in fixing it,” mentioned the Texas Republican on Thursday.

He is way from the one candidate anticipated to mount a bid. Others together with members of management comparable to John Thune, Joni Ernst and John Barrasso are anticipated to take into account operating for the highest spot as properly.

There’s additionally the potential of a candidate backed by Donald Trump, comparable to Rick Scott. The Florida Republican beforehand challenged Mr McConnell for management of the Senate GOP caucus in 2022.

Mr Cornyn is named being supportive of bipartisan compromise within the Senate whereas additionally being a fierce advocate for Republicans. He beforehand led the Senate GOP’s marketing campaign arm, the place he helped engineer key victories for his occasion and raised hundreds of thousands for his colleagues. Like lots of his colleagues, he has endorsed Donald Trump within the 2024 presidential race, although doing so solely after the previous president established a transparent frontrunner standing with victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The election of the subsequent Senate Republican chief is probably going to be a check of former President Donald Trump’s affect within the Senate Republican caucus, which has lengthy been an impediment to his whole management of the Republican Party. The obstinance of the Senate GOP caucus — no less than its management, beneath Mr McConnell — contrasts sharply with that of their colleagues within the House, who beneath Speaker Mike Johnson largely comply with the whims and needs of the previous president.

Mr Trump’s relationship with the outgoing Senate Republican chief has been fraught for years, although it got here to a head in late 2020 and early 2021 when Mr McConnell refused to again his false claims in regards to the presidential election and later whipped his caucus in opposition to voting to intervene with the certification of the president’s defeat. Under his presidency and Mr McConnell’s management of the Senate, nevertheless, the GOP did see three conservative Supreme Court justices confirmed to the bench and main tax laws move.

One of the Kentucky senator’s defining moments as Senate chief got here in 2018 when the long-awaited Republican bid to repeal Obamacare narrowly failed within the higher chamber regardless of its Republican majority.

Mr Cornyn, who like most of his GOP colleagues voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, would later go on to awkwardly praise it in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.