|
Cornyn Makes Leap from Robin Hood Author
to Abbott Vouchers Photo Thirty Years Later
Capitol Inside
May 4, 2025
U.S. Senator John Cornyn was a major player on school finance in Texas when he composed the majority opinion as a state Supreme Court member in 1995 in the case that upheld the Robin Hood recapture system that's forced the state's wealthier public schools to share tax revenues with poorer districts.
While Cornyn went on to serve four years as Texas attorney general before claiming his current post in 2002, he's never had a role in education funding at the state level as someone who hasn't ever been elected to the Legislature here. But you might not know that based on the way the state's senior U.S. Senate member sticks out in a photograph that Governor Greg Abbott posted on social media on Saturday after signing a monumental school choice plan into law at a ceremony at his residence in downtown Austin.
Cornyn, who had nothing to do with the vouchers legislation, appears to be taking credit for it nonetheless in the picture that shows the veteran solon on a row of dignitaries right behind the governor on the front steps of the Governor's Mansion where Abbott is hoisting a copy of Senate Bill 2 into the air.
Cornyn is positioned as a towering anchor on a row of celebrants that includes Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dustin Burrows and the lead sponsors for SB 2 - State Senator Brandon Creighton of Conroe and State Rep. Brad Buckley of Salado - respectively.
But the Republican who's trying to take Cornyn out in the 2026 primary election - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton - is nowhere to be found in the photo that shows the central characters in the battle for education savings accounts immersed in a crowd that contained GOP state lawmakers and activists who were selectively invited to the event.
As a President Donald Trump ally who's running for Cornyn's Senate seat next year, Paxton would have cause to feel slighted if his presence for the school vouchers photo op had not been encouraged by the governor or his team. But there's been no word from the Abbott camp up to now on whether Cornyn had an invite to the bill signing spectacle at the governor's home or whether he simply crashed the party in a slick piece of public relations maneuvering for the clash with Paxton in the next primary election.
Abbott, who took Cornyn's place as the Texas AG, cleared the way for Paxton to seek the state lawyer's post with his election as governor in 2014. Paxton resumed Abbott's practice of suing the federal government frequently whenever Democrats controlled the White House. But the governor refused to go to Paxton's defense when a former Texas Supreme Court justice sought to oust him in the primary election in 2022.
Abbott failed to have Paxton's back again the following year when 60 Texas House Republicans voted to impeach him in an ordeal that culminated in his acquittal in a Senate trial over which Patrick presided. But the governor faces a new decision on whether he will stay on the sidelines in the brawl between Cornyn and Paxton for the U.S. Senate seat.
Cornyn's appearance in the school vouchers photograph - coupled with Paxton's conspicuous absence - may give some Republican voters the impression that Abbott backs the incumbent in the Senate sweepstakes. Smooth move for Cornyn in such a case.
more to come ...
| 
