Sen. John Cornyn’s loss to Trump-backed Ken Paxton in a primary last week means the Senate Judiciary Committee will have two Republican members who may feel less obligated to stick with President Donald Trump.
Cornyn, R-Texas, joins Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., as Judiciary Committee members no longer facing reelection. Tillis announced his retirement last year after opposing Trump’s first reconciliation law.
The committee presides over some of the most intense, highly partisan matters that Congress faces in the modern era, as well as processing judicial nominations and Justice Department officials. The current 12-10 partisan split allows one Republican defection to deadlock the panel.
A second potential defection “opens up even more of a wild card situation,” said Gregg Nunziata, former policy counsel to the Senate Republican Policy Committee and former general counsel and domestic policy adviser to then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
“I think we’re about to see something we haven’t seen in a generation, which is an unpredictable Judiciary Committee,” said Nunziata, now executive director for the Society for the Rule of Law.
