Cornyn: GOP must listen to voters
Published 9:58 am Thursday, December 13, 2018
By Ken Stickney
Texas Republicans escaped most challenges — some narrowly — in the recently completed midterm elections, but U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Wednesday his party must consider what voters were telling them in the Nov. 6 vote.
Speaking on his weekly conference call with Texas news reporters, Cornyn said Republicans who are seeking office in 2020 — that includes him — need to do a better job focusing on what matters to voters.
Republicans “lost the suburbs” in ways that “were pretty dramatic,” Cornyn said. The suburbs have provided a reliable voter base for Republicans in recent elections.
In some cases, rural voters bailed out the Republican candidates.
“We need to talk about things people care about,” Cornyn said, listing these as most important and worthy of candidate attention: public education, health care costs and traffic and congestion. Those issues, he said, are relevant to “people who thought we were not talking to them.”
He also noted that 8.3 million Texans voted in the 2018 midterm elections, up from 4.7 million in the 2014 midterm election. Many of those people moved here from out of state, he said, including Californians who came here for economic opportunities.
Those voters, he said, did not come here demanding that Texas’ elected leaders “replicate policies that have failed in California.” Most of them, he said, likely came here because Texas has a booming economy, which presents opportunity for them.
Cornyn said he doesn’t know if he will draw primary opposition from within the Republican Party when he seeks re-election in 2020, and he welcomed an endorsement from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who squeaked past U.S. Rep. Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, D-El Paso, with Cornyn’s help in 2018.
In response to a reporter question, Cornyn said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also told Cornyn he had no interest in running for the Senate. He, too, is supporting Cornyn’s re-election, the senator said.
O’Rourke has also been suggested as an opponent for Cornyn in 2020, while others have suggested the two-term representative ought to run for president. Although he lost his Senate election to Cruz in November, O’Rourke draw national support from Democrats and was a record-setting candidate for fund raising.
“I really thought all along he fits the role of a national Democrat rather than a Texas Democrat,” Cornyn said, suggesting O’Rourke’s political views and campaign stances mirror those of U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, and U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California.
In response to a question, Cornyn also said Republicans would err if they believe they can run on President Trump’s coattails, should he seek re-election in 2020.
Cornyn said he recently gave a speech in which he said Trump was 100 percent responsible for large voter turnouts in 2018. But he added, he attracted opposition as well as support.
“The president cannot define my role in the Senate for Texas,” he said, adding that while he supports many of the president’s policies and celebrates his successes, they two also disagree in areas like trade.
