❓WHAT HAPPENED: Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has reversed his position on the Senate filibuster rule, advocating for its removal to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which mandates voter ID for federal elections.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Sen. Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, President Donald J. Trump, and Senate Democrats.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Cornyn announced his U-turn in an op-ed published on Wednesday in the New York Post.
💬KEY QUOTE: “We can either unilaterally disarm, or we can stand and fight,” Cornyn wrote regarding the filibuster and the SAVE Act.
🎯IMPACT: Cornyn’s shift comes as polls show Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a longtime supporter of the SAVE Act, is beating him in the polls for the upcoming Senate primary runoff in the Lone Star State.
In an effort to save his re-election bid, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) says he has now changed his mind on preserving the Senate’s filibuster rule, writing in an op-ed published Monday that the obstruction tool being utilized by Democrats must be eliminated to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act. The bill, which would require voter ID for federal elections, has emerged as a key priority for a large swath of the electorate and a top issue motivating much of President Donald J. Trump‘s MAGA base.
“For many years, I believed that if the U.S. Senate scrapped the filibuster, Texas and our nation would stand to lose more than we would gain… My fellow conservatives and I have proudly used the 60-vote threshold to protect the country from all sorts of bad ideas and dangerous policies,” Cornyn wrote. “Today, Democrats are weaponizing the Senate’s rules to block the SAVE America Act, defund the Department of Homeland Security, and hurt the American people—all to spite President Donald Trump. But they say openly that if these same rules ever get in Democrats’ way, they won’t hesitate to rip them up.”
“This leaves conservatives with two options. We can either unilaterally disarm, or we can stand and fight. The answer is clear: We need to stand, fight, and win,” Cornyn added, before declaring that he has changed his stance on the filibuster, “I respectfully urge the remaining handful of my Republican colleagues still holding on to the old position that I used to share to reassess the new reality and update their thinking.”
Still, he appeared less committed on Wednesday afternoon when pressed on his stance on Capitol Hill. “I said I’d be open to reforms,” Cornyn muttered when asked if he now supported “nuking” the filibuster, before declaring it wasn’t true that he had changed his position only to win President Trump’s endorsement in his Republican Senate primary runoff race against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. When pushed further, Cornyn bizarrely and aggressively shoved his hand in the reporter’s face and declared, “I think we’re done, go ahead, go away.”
Unlike Paxton, who has been a MAGA stalwart for years, Cornyn has a long history of backstabbing President Trump, and his top team included other Republicans-in-name-only (RINOs) who have said the MAGA movement should be “purged” from the GOP.
🚨 BREAKING: Sen. John Cornyn SNAPS at reporter asking if he came out in favor of nuking the filibuster for the SAVE America Act “just to win President [Trump’s] endorsement”
“That’s not true. I think we’re through! Go away! *Blocks camera with hand*” pic.twitter.com/QgkCTmY23G
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 11, 2026
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