{"id":2607249,"date":"2026-05-27T08:13:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/conservatives-are-driving-out-rinos-from-the-senate\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T08:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:16:32","slug":"conservatives-are-driving-out-rinos-from-the-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/conservatives-are-driving-out-rinos-from-the-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives Are Driving Out RINOs From The Senate Temple"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fconservatives-are-driving-out-rinos-from-the-senate%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2607249&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article argues that Republican primary voters are increasingly rejecting \u201cRINOs\u201d (Republicans in Name Only), pointing to two recent losses: Texas Sen. john Cornyn and Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy. It claims Cornyn-depicted as weak on MAGA priorities despite occasional alignment with Trump-was defeated by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a runoff after a major Trump endorsement, with the timing framed as a warning to Republicans who only selectively support MAGA goals.<\/p>\n<p>It further says Cornyn\u2019s loyalty was inconsistent: he backed Trump after the 2016 nomination but is criticized for later positions on border policy and a DACA-related deal, for opposing some early border-wall rhetoric, and for supporting gun-control legislation shaped with Democrats. The piece also highlights Cornyn\u2019s alleged tepid involvement in blocking the SAVE America Act, an election-integrity bill intended to prevent noncitizens from voting, arguing his reluctance to advance it cost him Trump\u2019s endorsement.<\/p>\n<p>To reinforce the \u201cmessage to establishment Republicans,\u201d the article compares the Texas outcome to Louisiana, where it says voters removed Cassidy after he voted to convict Trump during an impeachment process in 2021 and after trump supported Cassidy\u2019s primary challenger, Julia Letlow.It concludes that Republican voters want action and fighters-not cautious \u201cperformance\u201d-and that establishment Republicans can\u2019t rely on business-as-usual tactics to survive future primaries.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The weak-kneed Republican RINO. <em>Elephas Minimus, <\/em>or the <em>spineless elephant<\/em>. The Senate species commonly referred to as Republican in Name Only is hardly endangered, but conservative voters have been thinning their ranks.<\/p>\n<p>The latest to fall is bull RINO John Cornyn, a four-term Texas senator manufactured in an establishment Republican lab.<\/p>\n<p>Cornyn was summarily dismissed in <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/texas-senate-cornyn-paxton-trump-talarico-4fa609e7ddb93b47ac4e3398a12a472e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tuesday\u2019s primary runoff election,<\/a> suffering a 27-point shellacking to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Cornyn\u2019s crushing defeat arrived one week to the day after President Donald Trump delivered his coveted <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/05\/19\/an-america-first-patriot-trump-endorses-paxton-in-high-stakes-texas-senate-primary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">endorsement<\/a> to Paxton, whom the GOP\u2019s top dog described as a \u201ctrue MAGA warrior.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cornyn\u2019s unprecedented defeat was another strong message sent by motivated Republican primary voters: fail the MAGA movement at your own political peril. <\/p>\n<h2>\u2018The Primary Process was Bruising\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Cornyn\u2019s support of Trump and his policies has long been conditional, dependent on which way the Texas senator believed the political winds to be blowing. He\u2019s not alone on that front. Plenty of his Senate colleagues have done the same. For Cornyn, his fickle loyalty to Trump and key conservative values proved costly. <\/p>\n<p>In 2016, after Trump emerged victorious from a bareknuckle nomination battle, Cornyn held his nose and said he would support the Republican Party\u2019s nominee. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all know that the primary process was bruising and a lot of different choices (emerged). But we have to respect the choices made by the voters and I do, and I would consider Mr. Trump to be preferable to Secretary Clinton,\u201d he said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/sen-cornyn-trump-doesnt-appreciate-complexity-of-border-relations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">June 2016 speech<\/a> to the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. <\/p>\n<p>While a longtime vocal proponent of border security, Cornyn has more than flirted with the amnesty ambassadors in his party, in 2021 backing a <a href=\"https:\/\/cis.org\/Law\/Cornyn-Tillis-Call-DACAOnly-Amnesty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DACA deal<\/a> that would have given open-border Democrats an amnesty victory. And he was a <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/floor-action\/senate\/320820-cornyn-border-wall-makes-absolutely-no-sense-in-some-areas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">critic<\/a> of Trump\u2019s early campaign pledge to build a border wall. The member of the august Senate found such talk unseemly, divisive. Trump, Cornyn <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/sen-cornyn-trump-doesnt-appreciate-complexity-of-border-relations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> conservative radio talk show host Joe \u201cPags\u201d Pagliarulo in 2016, was a business guy and political outsider who didn\u2019t \u201chave the experience of visiting places like the border and appreciating the complexity of it \u2026 so he says things that are just jarring.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>To a lot of Second Amendment advocates, Cornyn is a traitor. The senator in 2022 \u201cteamed up with President Joe Biden\u201d and Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy to pass \u201cthe <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >largest federal gun control package<\/a> in over 30 years,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/gunrights.org\/john-cornyns-anti-gun-record-exposed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to<\/a> the National Association for Gun Rights. <\/p>\n<p>The bill funded \u2014 to the tune of $750 million in taxpayer money \u2014 expanded \u201cRed Flag\u201d gun confiscation initiatives, empowered Biden\u2019s Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives to target private gun sales, and created a \u201clifetime gun ban for many young Americans through a new federal registration scheme.\u201d Gun owner rights groups like the National Association for Gun Rights made sure conservative voters remembered the RINO\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/117th-congress\/senate-bill\/2938\/text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cBipartisan Safer Communities Act.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>SAVE Acting <\/h2>\n<p>More recently, Cornyn was one of the faces of the Republican majority\u2019s failure to pass the SAVE America Act, a critical election integrity package that, at its core, is aimed at blocking noncitizens from registering and voting in U.S. elections. As The Federalist <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/05\/20\/john-cornyns-failure-to-fight-for-the-save-act-cost-him-trumps-endorsement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> earlier this month, Paxton, unlike Cornyn, was willing to sacrifice his Senate run for the sake of a critical <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-protest-election-integrity-bill-inside-georgia-state-capitol-clash-with-police\/\" title=\"Democrats Protest Election Integrity Bill Inside Georgia State Capitol, Clash With Police\">election integrity bill<\/a> that Trump has described as his \u201ctop priority.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In early March when it appeared that the president was about to give his endorsement to Cornyn, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/05\/20\/john-cornyns-failure-to-fight-for-the-save-act-cost-him-trumps-endorsement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Paxton said<\/a> he would \u201cconsider dropping out of this race if Senate Leadership agrees to lift the filibuster and passes the SAVE America Act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cornyn was then forced to reconsider his opposition to nuking the Senate filibuster to pass the election integrity bill on a simple majority vote. But Capitol sources have told The Federalist that Cornyn and other RINOs fear seeing the act come up for an actual floor vote. <\/p>\n<p>The SAVE America Act is an <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/05\/20\/john-cornyns-failure-to-fight-for-the-save-act-cost-him-trumps-endorsement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">extremely popular bill<\/a>. Cornyn\u2019s lukewarm support for it and Senate Majority Leader John Thune\u2019s failure theater performance leading to the bill\u2019s burial didn\u2019t help Cornyn\u2019s cause. <\/p>\n<p>In the end, Texas conservatives wanted a fighter, a warrior for the MAGA movement. Cornyn wasn\u2019t it. <\/p>\n<h2>Get the Message<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s the same story in Louisiana, where Republican voters earlier this month sent Sen. Bill Cassidy packing after two terms in the upper house. Cassidy fell out of favor with Trump after he voted to convict the president in the Democrat-led witch hunt impeachment trial in early 2021. Trump endorsed Cassidy\u2019s challenger, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/trump-blasts-sen-bill-cassidy-disloyal-disaster-pushes-challenger-julia-letlow-louisiana-gop-primary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Julia Letlow,<\/a> R-La., who will face Louisiana state Treasurer John Fleming in the GOP\u2019s primary runoff. <\/p>\n<p>Cassidy took to X earlier this week to air his grievances and paint himself once again as a great American hero. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt its best, America has renewed itself through leaders who understood that public office is a responsibility, not a performance,\u201d Cassidy <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenBillCassidy\/status\/2059080125224743074\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said.<\/a> \u201cThe American people do not expect perfection from their leaders, but they do expect seriousness.\u201d <\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Leadership is not using power to serve your own needs; it is using power to serve the needs of others. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gOquQ9Vuhn\">https:\/\/t.co\/gOquQ9Vuhn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenBillCassidy\/status\/2059080125224743074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 26, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The American people expect action. They\u2019ve gotten little beyond performance from a Republican majority in a Senate filled with RINOs afraid to lead, to heed the mandate the American voter gave them in 2024\u2019s change election. <\/p>\n<p>But Louisiana and Texas should be a wake-up call for establishment Republicans and their massive ad campaigns to save primaried establishment Republicans. Business as usual in the stodgy Senate is no longer acceptable. Conservatives are driving out RINOs who fail to get that message. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-knew-100-percent-he-was-fighting-for-the-little-guy-former-top-trump-economic-adviser\/\" title=\"Trump Knew \u2018100 Percent\u2019 He Was \u2018Fighting for the Little Guy\u2019: Former Top Trump Economic Adviser\">award-winning investigative reporter<\/a> and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump Endorsed Paxton Defeats Cornyn by 27 in Texas Primary, New Warning to RINOs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2607250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-3.05.11-AM-1024x582.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546,33651],"tags":[4539,71852,52777],"class_list":["post-2607249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","category-the-western-journal","tag-conservatives","tag-republican-party-2","tag-rinos-2"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-3.05.11-AM-1024x582.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2607249"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2607253,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607249\/revisions\/2607253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2607250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2607249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2607249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2607249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}