Despite earlier talk, GOP lawmakers turning to Trump

Last spring, a veteran of Republican Senate leadership said that former president Donald Trump’s time had “passed by” and that the GOP needed to “come up with an alternative.” Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, also questioned Trump’s ability to win a general election, arguing that the former president didn’t understand “that when you run in a general election, you have to appeal to voters beyond your base.”

Less than a year later, Cornyn joined a number of remaining GOP holdouts in endorsing and rallying around Trump after his decisive victories in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

“I have seen enough,” Cornyn said in a statement Tuesday after it became clear Trump would win his second Republican nomination contest in two weeks.

“To beat Biden, Republicans need to unite around a single candidate, and it’s clear that President Trump is Republican voters’ choice. ... I will be continuing to work to elect a Republican Senate majority and to elect President Trump in 2024.”

Cornyn was once among a minority of GOP senators on Capitol Hill who tried to shepherd Republican voters toward a new presidential candidate after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and a disappointing performance in the 2022 midterms.

But between retirements and electoral losses, and lawmakers who have come to embrace the unshakable leader of the Republican Party, that minority has dwindled. In the span of a month, a rash of Republicans have endorsed Trump amid primary season victories that have left only one of his GOP opponents — former UN ambassador Nikki Haley — still standing.

House and Senate lawmakers across the ideological spectrum have issued statements ranging from glowing endorsements to milquetoast tweets of support after Trump trounced his opponents in Iowa and beat Haley by 11 points in New Hampshire. The fitful U-turns have become a familiar ritual for some establishment Republicans who have at first resisted Trump’s resurgence, only to switch course as his march to the nomination appears increasingly inevitable.

“The writing’s on the wall here; the primary is effectively over,” said Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio, who was once a vocal Trump critic before switching his views when he ran for Senate. “I think the natural evolution of this thing will be Trump will be the nominee and everybody will support him.”