Hallsville, TX— the Harrison County GOP voted on July 7th to censure US Senator John Cornyn for his recent involvement in passing gun control regulation. The vote passed by a 14-0 margin, with 2 abstentions. The vote was conducted by the County Executive Committee–which consists of Harrison County’s precinct chairs and county chair. Cornyn has recently garnered backlash from many conservatives within the Republican Party for negotiating with Democrats on the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022,” and was booed at the Texas Republican State Convention held on June 16th-18th.
Harrison County GOP Chairman Lee Lester told The Texas Horn that “the people of Texas elected [Cornyn] to represent their beliefs in Washington. When he goes against what he was sent to do, what do you do? An employer that has an employee that does the opposite of what their job description is would not be tolerated. Cornyn was hired by Republicans in Texas–not the Democrats–to represent our interest.”
Chairman Lester also informed The Texas Horn that the Harrison County GOP followed Rule 44 of the Texas GOP “explicitly” and allowed Senator Cornyn a 14 day period to speak before the committee (per Rule 44) to answer questions on “what we believe violates the platform of the RPT [Republican Party of Texas].” Rule 44 of the Republican Party of Texas provides the guidelines by which a County or Senatorial Convention, or a County or District Executive Convention, can censure a Party offical or public office holder for three or more actions taken during the current biennium in opposition to the RPT Platform (Rule 43A).
The Harrison County GOP laid out several grievances. In the official censure, the Harrison County GOP charged Cornyn with violating the “first, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, eight, and ninth core principles of the RPT platform.” Cornyn’s history with the second amendment was particularly highlighted amongst the grievances listed. The Harrison County GOP contends that Cornyn being the lead Republican negotiating with Democrats on S.9238–which “subsidizes red flag laws, imposes additional restrictions on otherwise legal gun ownership, and expands background checks–as a violation of RPT’s eighth core principle–”regarding our right to defend ourselves–”and first core principle–”which reaffirms our fidelity to the founding documents, which include our God-given right to self-defense, codified in the Second Amendment, which prohibits the exact infringements which Senator Cornyn voted for.”
They also cited other issues with Cornyn, including federal spending, growth of government, and a recent education bill to “promote civics.” The Harrison County GOP argues that the proposed civics bill promotes “anti-traditional concepts” and is a “striking of traditional American history.”
Conservative activist Robert West stated in a comment made to The Texas Horn that “this measure will make national news, put our elected officials at every level on notice, and destroy Cornyn’s endorsement value.” Activists like West hope that the move by the Harrison County GOP will influence other counties to censure Senator Cornyn. Chairman Lester holds this same sentiment and told The Texas Horn “to save our country it is time to hold politicians accountable…people are getting discouraged by voting for people that say they will do one thing and then…do something else.”
Not everyone in the Harrison County GOP holds this same sentiment. Precinct Chair Elton Brock–who voted to abstain–expressed frustration with the vote. Brock told The Texas Horn “[Cornyn] is our US Senator, and we should always show respect to our elected leaders.”
The Texas Horn reached out to Senator Cornyn’s office for comment but, as of publishing time, had received no response.
The Harrison County GOP will send an official copy of the censure to RPT State Chair Matt Rinaldi and requests the State Republican Executive Committee to concur in the resolution of censure and impose on Senator Cornyn the full set of penalties described in Rule 44–which includes the party discouraging Cornyn from running in the Republican primary and paying for “voter education” by “publishing original censure resolution verbatim.”
As much as fellow Texans agree with the sentiment of censuring Cornyn, I don’t think the new Harrison county CEC has followed the rules of censure which state the 3 offenses must occur within the current biennium which began on the first day of the recent convention.
It appears the censure is referring to offenses which occurred in the previous biennium.
But, just wait, Cornyn seems to be on a roll to stack-up crony deals that go against our Texas Republican Platform. Apparently, he doesn’t care about the Texans he represents since rumor has it he is retiring after his present term.
I would suggest we vote to make Texas a country again and strip Cornyn of his Texas citizenship. Then he can be deported.
AMEN!!!
I haven’t ever been a fan of John Cornyn, and usually just skip over the box to vote for him, not casting a vote for senator when he is up for re-election. I would love to see him ousted, even if it meant getting a Demorat for a term, to get a better conservative afterward- just playing the long game, but don’t want any Demorats and never have voted for one.