The Odd Couple: How Ted Cruz and John Cornyn went from fractured to friendly

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WASHINGTON — Ted Cruz has made a name for himself by bucking the establishment.

And, John Cornyn — well, he is the establishment.

At first glance, the two Texas senators are oil and water. Cruz is brash and outspoken. Cornyn is genteel and deliberate. Cruz is a legislative purist. Cornyn embraces compromise.

Cruz aspires to be president of the United States one day. Cornyn would be satisfied leading the Senate.

The stark differences led to a fractured fit at first, with the senators often clashing in style when Cruz first joined the Senate in 2013. But as the two round out over a decade in the upper chamber together, they have developed a relationship of mutual respect and cooperation, according to multiple people who have worked with the senators.

It’s an evolution that has transformed Texas’ representation in the Senate from an odd-coupling to an outsized presence for the state. Cruz is a household name nationwide and has become one of the loudest voices for the right wing of the party. Cornyn, who has been in the Senate twice as long as Cruz but lacks the same mainstream recognition, is a force in the upper chamber, who served six years as the number-two Republican in the Senate and is among the most prodigious fundraisers in Congress.

Both routinely pair together on legislation on issues ranging from judicial nominees to disaster relief for the state. They have also become fundraising powerhouses for Republican senators, solidifying Texas’ role as a war chest for the party.

And that symbiosis will come into play as each enters a career-defining election. Cruz is facing a competitive challenge from Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, in a race where his hard-right conservative bonafides may betray his effort to win moderate voters in a general election. Cornyn, meanwhile, has been patiently waiting in the wings for his opportunity to replace longtime Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, his mentor, but he will have to woo a Republican conference that is shifting further to the right.

“Each of us have a different role in the Senate,” Cruz said during a 2017 joint interview with Cornyn at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “John has a role in leadership … That is a big, big position for the state of Texas.”

“And you know, I kind of like to mix it up sometimes,” Cruz added.

Cornyn has offered his full-throated backing of Cruz’s reelection effort — an easy endorsement over a Democrat in a race that could decide which party will control the chamber after November.

In a statement for this story, Cornyn called Cruz someone who “continues to bring wins home for Texas” and whom he is proud to call “a partner and a friend.” Cornyn has so far raised over $26 million this cycle for Senate Republicans despite not being up for reelection himself. Of that, he has given over $500,000 to Cruz this cycle as of the end of the second quarter.

“I look forward to his resounding victory in November and to many more years of working together on behalf of Texans,” Cornyn said.

Cruz reciprocated the sentiment in a statement, though he did not say if he was supporting Cornyn in his leadership bid.

"Senator Cornyn and I have worked closely together in the Senate for years," Cruz said. "He is a great ally and a trusted friend and I look forward to continuing to work with him to provide results for the people of Texas."

A slow start

In their first few years together, Cruz and Cornyn clashed over their differing styles.

Cruz was acerbic, vocal and unafraid to stare down his own party. He was elected to the upper chamber on a Tea Party wave, often chastising his GOP colleagues as ineffective in fighting for conservative principles. It was a grassroots movement that catapulted him from initially polling at just 2% in the 2012 Republican primary to winning by over 13 points in the primary runoff against the well-funded former Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

Cruz “campaigned in 2012 on tearing down the drapes and throwing out the silverware. And look, what you've seen in this town is that it does not like change,” said U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, who served as Cruz’s first chief of staff.

That year, Cornyn — who had served in the Senate for 10 years by that point — was elected to be Republican whip, the second-in-command to McConnell, with whom Cruz regularly butts heads. The position for Cornyn was the culmination of years of climbing the ranks of Senate Republican leadership and earning the trust and respect of his colleagues.

It was Cornyn’s job to make sure Republicans stayed in line and followed the party leaders on strategy — to make sure senators like Cruz didn’t go off the rails.

While the two had similar overarching policy goals, their methods often went head-to-head.

In 2013, Cruz filibustered a vote to pass the budget over its inclusion of funding for the Affordable Care Act, which extended health insurance to millions of Americans. The filibuster led to a 16-day government shutdown that Democrats squarely blamed on Cruz.

Cornyn was also a fierce critic of the law — he was one of the leading Senate voices against the Affordable Care Act when it was first negotiated — but he was also openly skeptical about the effectiveness of Cruz’s tactics.

“While I remain committed to defunding Obamacare, I’m also committed to avoiding a government shutdown,” Cornyn told reporters at the time. He praised Cruz for bringing greater attention to Republican criticisms of the health care law, but said "there have been some differences within the family on tactics, on how to accomplish that goal.”

The move failed to stop funding for the Affordable Care Act, but it succeeded in launching a national profile for Cruz, which he used in his 2016 presidential campaign. Cornyn noted as much when he said in 2016 that Cruz “didn’t come here to remain in the Senate. He came here to run for president, and I think perhaps that’s explained the difference in tactics.”

But Cruz pressed on, saying he was staying loyal to the movement that took him to Congress.

“Perhaps they wanted to discourage conservatives like [U.S. Sen.] Mike [Lee of Utah] and me from ever again rebelling against the party line,” Cruz wrote in his 2015 memoir. “But for whatever reason, the Senate Republican leadership decided to direct their fire not on Democrats or on Obamacare, but on conservatives in their own party.”

Cruz didn’t name Cornyn in his attacks on Senate leadership, saying in 2015: “When I speak about GOP leadership, that is deliberately written in the generic, rather than in individuals. Because it gives any individual senator the opportunity through his or her actions to behave differently. It gives the opportunity for a change of course.”

Their most direct and public confrontation occurred in 2015 when Cruz accused McConnell on the Senate floor of telling a “flat-out lie” while negotiating over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

Cornyn chided Cruz on the Senate floor, saying: “I have listened to the comments of my colleague, the junior senator from Texas, both last week and this week, and I would have to say that he is mistaken.”

By the standards of the Senate at the time, it was a scolding.

Reflecting on Cruz’s early days battling leadership in the Senate, Cornyn told The Texas Tribune that “senators are the best ones to determine what their vote should be and what the outcome should be.”

Making amends

Cruz’s pugilistic tendencies in the Senate proved a liability during his presidential run. Only six sitting senators endorsed Cruz that year, four of whom only did so after first endorsing Sen. Marco Rubio or former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Cornyn did not endorse Cruz or any candidate that year in the GOP presidential primary.

And for his part, Cruz never endorsed Cornyn in his 2014 reelection campaign — reportedly to the chagrin of Cornyn allies who viewed it as a slight.

“When Cruz first ran for Senate, and I was involved with him, he was clearly in the anti-establishment camp, which can be an honorable place to be,” said Rick Tyler, who worked communications on Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign but is no longer in Cruz’s orbit. “But the Senate itself, by nature, is not an anti-establishment body.”

Former President Donald Trump’s ascent during the 2016 presidential campaign put Cruz’s White House ambitions on ice for the last eight years. And if he wanted a record to run on in the future, he would need to build bridges within the chamber (Cruz has said he expects to run for president in the future).

Relationships are crucial to getting legislation passed in the Senate — a chamber where traditions, deference and seniority all contribute to an lethargic legislative pace.

“His rhetoric is more restrained than it was in the past, so he’s got the support of the base of the party as well as the mainstream,” said Hal Lambert, a fundraiser who organized a super PAC supporting Cruz’s presidential campaign. “I’m sure it’s intentional. By doing that he’s been getting a lot of things done in the Senate.”

The two became closer after Cruz's presidential campaign, according to people familiar with their dynamic, working together on legislation directly impacting Texas and the judiciary.

Cornyn cited Hurricane Harvey as one of the moments that pushed the two together. The storm left devastating amounts of rainfall on Houston, paralyzing the city and leaving more than 80 dead in coastal Texas.

Cornyn said in 2017 it was important “that we stand together as a Texas delegation and there’s no space between Sen. Cruz and me when it comes to doing work for our state.”

In a sign of warming attitudes, Cornyn endorsed Cruz that year in his reelection campaign against Democratic heavyweight Beto O’Rourke, saying doing so sent “the message to Texans, when it comes to something like the recovery after this natural disaster, that we are going to stand together and not be distracted.”

Cruz and Cornyn worked together to pass hurricane relief legislation that year that would release more than $15 billion in federal funds to Texas. Cornyn also joined Cruz’s bill that year to provide more than $5.5 billion in tax breaks for Hurricane Harvey victims.

Cornyn was willing to back his 2018 endorsement with action — and cash. Cornyn rallied donors for Cruz’s cause, including at a fundraiser in 2018 at Washington’s Capital Grille, a favored haunt for Cruz where he often holds court. Cornyn warned donors that Republicans cannot get too comfortable in Texas.

“If Ted does his job and we do ours, I think we’ll be fine. But if we have donors sitting on the sidelines thinking that, ‘Well, this isn’t all that serious,’ or ‘I don’t need to be concerned,’ then that’s a problem,” Cornyn told Politico in 2018.

The fundraiser brought in $130,000 for Cruz.

Cornyn was one of Cruz’s high-profile surrogates in 2018, joining Cruz on his statewide bus tour to discuss the pair’s work on policy central to Texas, including the border and hurricane relief.

Cruz defeated O’Rourke by just under three percentage points in the race that jeopardized the Republican dominance in the state that Cornyn had worked for decades to build.

The race set the tone for future races, where the two senators continued to back each other. A month after his 2018 victory, Cruz endorsed Cornyn for his 2020 election two years early.

“I fully expect the Democrats to come after John with everything they have got, to put a lot of money into this campaign. Now we are going to win this race, and I am proud to endorse John Cornyn for reelection. I am going to be campaigning with him,” Cruz said ahead of Cornyn’s 2020 race. “I am going to be supporting him just like he supported me in 2018.”

Partners in law

Today, Cornyn and Cruz assert they enjoy a strong relationship. They've grown comfortable in their respective roles of lesser-known Senate insider and nationally recognized Republican messenger.

James Bernsen, a political consultant who worked on Cruz’s first Senate campaign in 2012, said Texas’ past senators had a similar dynamic. Bernsen previously staffed former Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Phil Gramm, both Texas Republicans who preceded Cruz and Cornyn. Bernsen said Gramm used to quip that he and Hutchison were “Beauty and the Beast.”

“They found their niche,” Bernsen said. “Hutchison could talk to people who really wouldn’t necessarily talk as much with Gramm. And Gramm could talk to people who are different from Hutchison. So they could, between the two of them, be advocates for Texas in different forums.”

Cruz and Cornyn still diverge at times on major legislation. While Cornyn voted with President Joe Biden 48.5% of the time this Congress, Cruz voted with the president only 13.8%.

The pair notably broke over the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first gun safety legislation signed into law in a generation. Galvanized by the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Cornyn was a lead Republican negotiator in the bipartisan bill.

It was always going to be a gamble for Cornyn, and Cruz was hardly the only Republican to dissent. Trump blasted Cornyn as a Republican in name only for his support for the bill, and several Republicans followed suit. The National Rifle Association condemned the legislation as taking guns away. U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose district includes Uvalde, was the only Texas Republican in the House to support the bill. The Texas Republican Party censured him the following year citing his vote. Cornyn was viciously booed during the 2022 Texas Republican Party convention for his work on the bill.

Cruz didn’t hold back on his criticisms of the bill either. He introduced his own gun safety bill with Senate Republican Conference Chair John Barrasso that would include funding for school hardening measures.

He derided Cornyn’s legislation as one that would “strip away Americans’ constitutional rights” and “designed, among other things, to satiate the urge to do something” after a mass shooting.

Cornyn defended the bill on the Senate floor shortly after.

“I promise to do everything in my power to try to answer that call — to ‘do something’,” he said, pointedly using air quotes though not naming Cruz. “I don’t believe in doing nothing in the face of what we saw in Uvalde, and we’ve seen in far too many communities. Doing nothing is an abdication of our responsibility.”

The bill, which Cornyn defended as not infringing on the rights of law-abiding gun owners, was signed into law that summer.

Still, they have become a considerable legislative pairing on a host of issues directly impacting Texas, from water access to disaster relief to international commerce to the judiciary. The pair serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee advising judicial nominations to President Joe Biden, establishing a bipartisan Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee to vet candidates from Texas.

Daron Shaw, a political scientist and pollster at the University of Texas at Austin, said there was rich opportunity for Cruz and Cornyn to use each other's strengths for their respective goals.

Cornyn “has an internal audience. His audience is the Senate, and in particular Republicans in the Senate,” Shaw said. “I don’t think that’s Ted’s main audience. I think Ted’s audience is Texas, and then the national Republican audience.”

Helping each other out

It remains to be seen if that relationship will translate to Cruz helping Cornyn in his run to succeed McConnell, though his support would be a major asset. As the Senate Republican conference takes a gradual rightward shift, Cornyn will need to prove he isn’t a carbon copy of the former leader, who has lost considerable support among the party’s base.

Cruz was one of the leading voices in a right-wing challenge to McConnell’s leadership in 2022, voting instead for Florida Sen. Rick Scott, and has openly called for McConnell to step down. Cruz is keeping his cards close on how he will vote in the leadership election this fall and hasn’t made any public commitments to helping Cornyn. He could keep his position strategically ambiguous. The vote for party leader is by secret ballot within the Senate Republican Conference. Cornyn is running against current Senate Minority Whip John Thune of South Dakota and Scott, who is in a competitive reelection this year.

Cruz is not exceptional in his silence. Most Republican senators are keeping their picks for leader secret, waiting for the results of the Senate elections.

Cornyn has been meeting with each of his Republican colleagues to curry their support, highlighting his exceptional ability to raise money as a key asset. He has raised over $406 million since his first election in 2002, and has shared over 80% of it with his peers, including with Cruz. That’s in contrast to McConnell, whose primary super PAC the Senate Leadership Fund did not spend on Cruz’s race.

“I told Senator Cruz I'll do anything he wants me to do to help him,” Cornyn said. “But I'm very optimistic about his successes.”

Disclosure: Politico, Texas Public Policy Foundation and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.