John Cornyn’s Second Amendment Compromises with Biden Hampering His Reelection Bid
Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) Second Amendment weakness, the result of his high profile support for gun control under Joe Biden, is hampering his reelection prospects.
On May 28, 2025, Texas Southern University’s Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center reported that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has a nine percent lead over Cornyn in the March 2026 Republican primary. Five days later, on June 3, 2025, Punch Bowl News pointed to “a new independent poll” showing the Cornyn’s deficit had greatly increased, with Paxton ahead by 22.
Breitbart News previously noted that Cornyn fell into low esteem with Texas voters when he took a central role in fashioning Biden’s 2022 gun control package titled the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Breitbart News observed that Cornyn was then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s point man for gun control, being tapped to reach across the aisle and work with Democrats to secure the legislation.
The gun control package Cornyn helped secure expanded background checks for some gun buyers, used taxpayer money to incentivize states to enact red flag laws, and broadened the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) which prohibited purchases by using domestic violence statutes to cover dating relationships.
Just over a week before Biden signed Cornyn’s gun control, the Senator spoke to a Republican Party convention and was booed for working with the Democrats to place more Second Amendment restrictions on the backs of law-abiding citizens:
The backlash against Cornyn’s gun control efforts did not go away. In the Spring of 2024, when he threw his name into the ring to be considered for a Senate leadership, Gun Owners of America rallied in opposition and told Second Amendment advocates that Cornyn could not be trusted.
On March 1, 2024, Breitbart News noted that GOA director of federal affairs Aidan Johnston used an X post to say, in part, “Americans deserve someone who will refuse to compromise with their God-given Second Amendment rights. And unfortunately, John Cornyn is always, always, always cutting deals with our Second Amendment.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
