Sen. John Cornyn backs Donald Trump after previously questioning his ability to win

WASHINGTON — After previously casting doubt on Donald Trump’s ability to win a general election, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, says it’s time for Republicans to rally behind the former president’s 2024 campaign for the White House.

Cornyn issued his rallying cry on social media minutes after The Associated Press called Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary for Trump.

“To beat Biden, Republicans need to unite around a single candidate, and it’s clear that President Trump is Republican voters’ choice,” Cornyn wrote on X.

The state’s senior senator had a strikingly different take during a call with Texas reporters last May, when he was asked by The Dallas Morning News about Trump’s recent performance during a CNN town hall.

“We need to come up with an alternative,” Cornyn said then. “I think President Trump’s time has passed him by, and what’s the most important thing to me is we have a candidate who can actually win.”

A Trump campaign spokesman returned fire at the time, calling Cornyn part of the “deep state rotting through government.”

Cornyn focused last year’s objections to Trump on his lack of electability and characterized the former president as overly concerned about satisfying his most enthusiastic supporters.

“I don’t think President Trump understands that when you run in a general election, you have to appeal to voters beyond your base,” Cornyn said during the May call.

On Wednesday, Cornyn offered a rosier assessment of Trump’s prospects while chatting with reporters at the U.S. Capitol.

Cornyn said he now believes Trump has a good chance of winning, in part because of what he described as President Joe Biden’s “pathetic” performance in office. He has criticized Biden’s approach to U.S.-Mexico border security, inflation and foreign policy.

“Maybe I underestimated how angry people are at Washington, D.C., and the two major political parties, and [Trump’s] definitely tapped into that,” Cornyn added.

Cornyn touted Trump’s success in pushing through significant Republican priorities: confirming federal judges — including three members of the U.S. Supreme Court — enacting tax cuts and promoting energy independence.

Cornyn said he wished Trump would talk more about that track record.

With the exception of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s primary rivals have dropped out of the race. She has vowed to keep fighting as the primary battle moves to her home state on Feb. 24.

Haley’s campaign said she will “continue to contrast her new generation of conservative leadership with Biden’s and Trump’s chaos and drama.”

Cornyn said he asked his colleagues from South Carolina about Haley’s prospects in that state. They told him she was likely to lose by 20 percentage points or more, he said.

“I respect her right to stay in the race, but I think we ought to unify as soon as possible so we can make Biden the issue and not shoot at each other,” Cornyn said.

Trump’s victories in Iowa and New Hampshire have left few Republicans sitting on the sidelines. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, remained neutral in the contest for months but endorsed Trump after his Iowa win earlier this month.

Biden also is ready to hand Trump the nomination, eager to shift the national political conversation to a contrast between the two of them. That was evident in a message Biden sent to voters Tuesday night in the wake of the New Hampshire results.

“It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee,” Biden said. “And my message to the country is the stakes could not be higher. Our Democracy. Our personal freedoms — from the right to choose to the right to vote. Our economy — which has seen the strongest recovery in the world since COVID. All are at stake.”