Senator John Cornyn to Attend San Angelo Political Summit

SAN ANGELO, TX — The 2023 San Angelo Chamber of Commerce’s West Texas Legislative Summit will feature two big names, both on the national scene, but one, Senator John Cornyn, is Texan through and through. Senator Cornyn will be joined by U.S. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa.

Cornyn, who is reported to be in the hunt to become Senate Minority Leader should Senator Mitch McConnell retire, serves at the Republican whip on the U.S. Senate. In 2021, he told the Texas Tribune, “[A]s long as [McConnell] wants to be a leader, I will continue to support him because I think he’s been extraordinarily effective, but should he decide to step down and no longer serve as a leader, I’ve made it no secret that I would like to succeed him.”

Cornyn is juxtaposed to Senator Ted Cruz, Texas’ junior senator, as the deal maker for Texas in the Senate. Cruz is the flamethrower. Both roles are needed. Cornyn works hard to create and maintain deep relationships based on trust in a Washington D.C. that is not known for that.

Yet, Cornyn is not afraid of taking on the Democrats and was a leading voice stopping and preventing President Barrack Obama’s dead duck appointment of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court in late 2016. The nomination never was voted upon by the Republican-led Senate. In 2017, Cornyn grilled then-FBI Director James Comey about Hillary Clinton’s emails rather than participate the the Trump Russian Collusion conspiracy investigation for which Comey was present to testify. During the 2018 confirmation hearings for Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Cornyn accused the Democrats of mob rule for breaking Senate decorum.

Cornyn was the first Republican elected as Texas Attorney General since Reconstruction in 1998. Four years later he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Prior to that, in the late 1980s, Cornyn served as a district judge in San Antonio for six years before his election as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court where he served for seven years.

Cornyn serves on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; Committee on Finance; the Committee on the Judiciary; and Caucus on International Narcotics Control.

Ernst, a retired U.S. Army reserves and Iowa National Guard Lieutenant Colonel, served as a logistics officer in Operation Iraqi Freedom for 12 months from 2003 until 2004. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014 and re-elected in 2020. She was on the short list to be President Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2016 campaign. Trump instead selected Mike Pence.

Ernst serves on the Armed Forces Committee; the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. In 2019, Politico stated that Ernst was “a reliable vote for most of Trump’s agenda.”

Those aware of the participation of two U.S. Senators on the national stage at the 19th Annual West Texas Legislative Summit are elated. Governor Greg Abbott’s participation during the 2022 Summit was likely driven by election politics, but it helped elevate the San Angelo conference in importance. Credit can also go to Rep. August Pfluger (CD-11) who is a rising star in the national Republican Party. The content strategy of the summit alternates each year between State of Texas and national politics. The year’s summit will focus on Pfluger’s domain.

On a related note, Goodfellow Air Force Base has received more attention as of late with visits by the Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall in April 2023 and Chief of Staff of the Air Force General C.Q. Brown in December 2022. Back-to back visits by top USAF officials were unprecedented and illustrate the rising profile of the San Angelo area on the national stage.

The West Texas Legislative Summit begins the evening of Monday, July 31, with a “Summit Soiree” social event at the Cactus Hotel. The following day, August 1, will be an all-day program of keynotes and panel discussions at the C.J. Davidson Center on the campus of Angelo State University. The theme for this year’s conference is “Food, Fuel, and Enforcement: West Texas Securing the Nation.” The conference honorary hosts are Rep. August Pfluger, State Senator Charles Perry, and State Rep. Drew Darby. The topics to be explored are agriculture, energy, economics, and national security.

Tickets are on sale to the July 31 social and the all-day summit. Early bird pricing for the social is $100 each and the all-day summit is $150. Get tickets online here.