DALLAS — Now that Republicans won control of the U.S. Senate, the next round of voting will be to determine party leadership.
The incoming class of Republican senators will vote on a new majority leader in a secret ballot vote expected to be taken during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday.
Mitch McConnell is stepping away after two decades leading Republicans in the Senate.
John Cornyn has represented Texas in the U.S. Senate since 2002. He was McConnell’s second in command from 2013 to 2019. He’s been reelected three times, and now, he’s in the running to lead the chamber.
The position would immediately elevate Cornyn’s own stature but would also mean power and influence for Texas, said SMU political science professor Matthew Wilson.
“Were Cornyn to be the legislative majority leader in the Senate, he would have more ability to advance Texas priorities,” Wilson said. “He could also be influential in advancing Texans for judicial appointments or for cabinet positions.”
Senator John Thune of South Dakota and Senator Rick Scott of Florida are also running for Majority Leader. Scott has been publicly supported by Elon Musk.
President-elect Donald Trump has not yet weighed in on the race.
Cornyn is likely politicking behind the scenes, Wilson said, trying to assure Trump’s allies he’s loyal.
Cornyn has outperformed Scott in fundraising for Republican candidates, but whether he can win enough votes is not clear.
“For Cornyn, what's going on right now is an attempt to reassure the more conservative flank of the GOP caucus that he is one of them, that he understands their concerns, that he is a true believer, and that he will advance and not obstruct the Trump agenda,” Wilson said.
In a recent appearance on Fox News Channel, Cornyn said he’d like to “make America great again by making the Senate work again.”
“We are going to be hand and glove with the Trump administration,” Cornyn went on to say.
But he also can’t escape some of his old quotes. In 2023, he told reporters, “I think President Trump’s time has passed him by.”
Cornyn is 72. He was on the Texas Supreme Court before serving as Texas Attorney General from 1999 to 2002. Wilson said Cornyn is likely perceived as an old-school lawmaker who cares about institutional norms in the Senate.
“And I think he's seen by some conservatives as having been too close to Mitch McConnell and too much in the style of Mitch McConnell. He'll need to signal to them that he would be a departure from that,” Wilson said.