Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) will be lampooned in an attack ad from opponent Attorney General Ken Paxton’s campaign for going on “spring break” and leaving the Department of Homeland Security unfunded, The Post has learned.
The artificial intelligence-generated digital ad will be released Tuesday as Cornyn and Paxton prepare for their May 26 runoff race in the Texas Senate Republican primary.
“President Trump is fighting to protect our nation and stop illegals from voting, but his agenda is on hold because John Cornyn is on spring break,” a narrator says in the five-figure ad blitz.
The AI video advertisement depicts the Republican senator lounging on the beach in a sunhat and later barreling down a waterslide at an amusement park — before heading to a luau.
“The SAVE America Act is stalled, and our nation is at risk while he’s vacationing,” the narrator also says. “Cornyn skipped town instead of fully funding DHS or working on reconciliation. And Cornyn still won’t abolish the filibuster to support Trump.”
“Let’s give John Cornyn a permanent vacation,” it adds.
Trump has yet to endorse either candidate in the primary.
The four-term senator in a Post op-ed on March 11 said he backed “whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary for us to get the SAVE America Act and Homeland Security funding past the Democrats’ obstruction, through the Senate, and on the president’s desk for his signature.”
But neither the voter ID bill nor the DHS funding measure have made it out of Congress — despite versions passing either in the Senate or in the House.
A rep for his congressional office said, “Sen. Cornyn is spending the state work period crisscrossing Texas and will hold events in five cities this week alone.”
The GOP holds a 53-47 majority in the Senate, but most legislation requires at least 60 votes to pass — unless the filibuster is abolished. --->READ MORE HERE
The president could still weigh in over the next seven weeks. But his inaction before last month’s dropout deadline has only hardened the rivalry.
On March 4, the day after the Texas Senate Republican primary, President Donald Trump was resolute — he would be endorsing “soon” in the runoff between Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, and he wanted the contest to end quickly.
More than a month later, the president has been noncommittal about the runoff. He has stayed on the sidelines well past the deadline for candidates to drop off the May ballot and downplayed the threat of Democratic nominee James Talarico.
“I believe that any human being running against him, sick, incompetent, close to death or even a child, would win,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on March 22. “He may be the Worst candidate I have ever seen.”
That missive was a notable shift from Trump’s message the day after the primary, when he said he’d expect the candidate he did not endorse to drop out for “the good of the Party,” adding, “We must win in November!!!” The president’s posture at the time appeared to bode well for Cornyn, whose allies have tried to convince Trump that Paxton would be a weaker candidate in the general election.
But since then, Paxton supporters and activists in the MAGA movement have loudly campaigned against a Cornyn endorsement, and the attorney general was seen discussing the runoff with Trump himself at a GOP fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, Politico reported.
The notoriously unpredictable president could still weigh in over the next seven weeks. But his inaction before last month’s dropout deadline has only hardened the rivalry.
“Trump not endorsing at this point has had an impact,” said John Wittman, an unaffiliated Republican consultant and former adviser to Gov. Greg Abbott. “And so the reality is that this is still a very close race. Paxton is probably the favorite right now, but this is absolutely a winnable race for John Cornyn.”
The president’s decision to stay out of the runoff, thus far, has coincided with a relatively quiet post-primary period, as the campaigns and their outside supporters reload. But as the May 26 election creeps closer, the race is expected to heat up once more.
The main pro-Cornyn super PAC, Texans for a Conservative Majority, has begun its runoff push, with new AI-forward ads attacking Paxton for various ethical liabilities, including his alleged extramarital affairs. And the Cornyn camp says there’s more coming. --->READ MORE HERE
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