In Texas Primary, RINOs Show How Much They Hate Their Voters
The article argues that Senate Republicans are reacting with unusually intense anger after President Trump endorsed Ken Paxton over John Cornyn in texas’s republican Senate primary.It describes GOP leaders responding with visible reluctance or frustration-casting the episode as a spectacle of party infighting rather than ideological disagreement-while noting that similar bitterness has surfaced after Louisiana voters ousted Bill Cassidy, with senators allegedly expressing their disapproval through public gestures.
It then challenges the assumption that Cornyn adn Cassidy are core conservative champions. The piece claims both have repeatedly sided against Republican voters’ interests-citing examples such as support for gun control, skepticism toward conservatives, backing positions related to immigration amnesty or border policy, and voting patterns the author links to anti-Trump legal efforts and large spending initiatives.
Despite acknowledging that Republicans lost these races in red-state primaries, the article maintains that the real driver of the conference’s fury is less about policy outcomes and more about protecting an entrenched party power structure. It argues Republicans often posture against “Democrat overreach” during elections but fail to deliver meaningful changes once in office, and it concludes that conservative voters (including through Trump’s endorsements) have shown they can disrupt this system-though doing so will require sustained focus and strategy.
The Senate GOP is having a full-blown meltdown at President Trump’s decision to endorse Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate Republican primary over establishment darling John Cornyn. And it is nothing short of glorious.
Flanked by frowning members of Senate GOP leadership, Majority Leader John Thune somberly reaffirmed his support for the gun control-loving Cornyn, whom he called a “principled conservative.” Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker reportedly “remained stone-faced (appeared to be intentional) for about 20 seconds” when asked for his reaction to Trump’s endorsement of Paxton. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is reported to have thrown a temper tantrum at the president’s refusal to back Cornyn.
The Senate GOP’s little pity parade continued into the members’ Tuesday lunch over the recent ouster of Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy. The senators reportedly demonstrated their disapproval with Republican voters’ decision to give Cassidy the boot in the state’s Saturday primaries by giving him a standing ovation.
[READ: Conservatives Can’t Beat Democrats Until They Defeat The RINOs In Their Own Party First]
Given this visceral reaction from the Republican conference, the casual observer may get the impression that Cornyn and Cassidy — both of whom hail from solid “red states” — are conservative stalwarts who play a vital role in advancing “America First” priorities and stopping Democrat ones.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
In the decades he’s served in the Senate, Cornyn has supported gun control legislation, called conservatives “terrorists,” attacked efforts to investigate anti-Trump lawfare, signaled support for amnesty for illegal aliens, opposed a border wall, pushed a bill advancing critical race theory, and backed Biden-era spending bombs. Meanwhile, Cassidy has voted for convicting Trump during his second impeachment, gun control, massive spending bills, and gave credence to Democrat lawfare by demanding Trump drop out of the 2024 presidential race after the Biden DOJ indicted him in a case over classified documents.
All of these actions betray the fundamental interests of the Republican voters Cornyn and Cassidy were elected to represent. And yet, none of it is what’s driving the Senate GOP conference to anger.
By all accounts, many Senate Republicans are more furious at Cornyn’s and Cassidy’s prospective ousters than their shared history of stabbing GOP voters in the back.
If that doesn’t sound very “principled,” it’s because it’s not. It’s petty vindictiveness that plagues most of the modern Republican Party.
They don’t care about beating Democrats. Nor do they care about advancing their voters’ interests (see their ongoing refusal to pass the SAVE America Act.)
[READ: Republicans Would Rather Cede Power To Democrats Than Their Own Voters]
What it all boils down to is protecting the do-nothing system these Republicans have spent decades building, in which they feign outrage about Democrat overreach, campaign on fixing it, and then do absolutely nothing of consequence once given the power to do so.
The survival of this entrenched status quo relies on a complacent GOP electorate that doesn’t pay attention to what their elected officials are doing. What the Texas and Louisiana primaries show, however, is that conservative voters (and Trump) have the ability to shatter this system. But it’s going to take a lot of focus and strategy to make it happen.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics and RealClearHealth. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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