John Cornyn Backs Off Project to Rename Texas Highway After Donald Trump Following Loss to Trump-Backed Challenger

(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has lost interest in renaming a Texas highway after President Donald Trump following his primary loss to Trump-backed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

While he was still seeking the president’s endorsement in the hotly contested runoff, Cornyn had pushed legislation to rename U.S. Highway 287 as Interstate 47 in honor of the the 47th president,

Following his loss, however, Cornyn said the bill “may not make it into my priorities the next seven months.”

Texas state Rep. Jared Patterson (R) has since picked up the mantle, and said he will file a resolution to rename the Dallas North Tollway after Trump.

The highway renaming was just one stunt Cornyn employed to win Trump’s favor. Another was a picture of himself reading Trump’s ghostwritten bestseller, The Art of the Deal, that he posted to social media. But Paxton’s pandering to Trump on the Save America Act won the day, with the president ultimately throwing his support behind the scandal-plagued A.G. just days before Texas Republicans headed to vote.

The Associated Press called the race last Tuesday night with about 49% of the votes in and Paxton leading with more than 25 percentage points. Trump’s endorsements also led to incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) losing their seats in contentious races.

After his loss, Cornyn posted a what he called “[a]n old, but apt fable,” the story of the scorpion and the frog that echoes “The Snake” poem Trump loves to share on the campaign trail in an apparent swipe at Trump.

In addition to standing firm on the highway issue, Cornyn told Hearst Newspapers that he plans to challenge Trump on areas where he and the president “differ.”

On Tuesday, Cornyn joined Republican senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to challenge the qualifications of Bill Pulte, Trump’s pick for acting director of national intelligence.

“I have yet to see any evidence that he meets that statutory requirement,” Cornyn said of Pulte, who currently serves as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and has no intelligence experience or security clearance. “It’s very important to have true national security professionals in charge of the intelligence community.”

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