John Cornyn

John Cornyn III (born February 2, 1952) is the senior United States Senator for Texas, serving since 2002. He is a member of the Republican Party and the current Senate Minority Whip for the 113th Congress. Cornyn previously served as Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2007-2011.

Born in Houston, Texas, Cornyn is a graduate from Trinity University and St. Mary's University School of Law, receiving his LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law. Cornyn was a Judge on Texas’ 37th District Court from 1985-1991, until winning election as an Associate Justice on the Texas Supreme Court, serving on the Court from 1991-1997. In 1998, Cornyn won election for Attorney General of Texas, serving one term until winning a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2002. In 2010, John Cornyn was voted one of the "most conservative congressmen" by the National Journal.

Early life, education, and legal career
Cornyn was born in Houston, the son of Atholene Gale Cornyn (née Danley) and John Cornyn II, a colonel in the USAF. He attended the American School in Japan while growing up when his family moved to Tokyo. He graduated from Trinity University in 1973, where he majored in journalism and was a member of Chi Delta Tau. He earned a J.D. from St. Mary's University School of Law in 1977 and an LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1995.

He served in San Antonio for six years as a district judge before being elected as a Republican in 1990 to the Texas Supreme Court, on which he served for seven years.

1998 election
In 1998, Cornyn decided to run to become Texas Attorney General. In the March primary, Barry Williamson, Railroad Commissioner, placed first with 38% of the vote but failed to get the 50% threshold necessary to win the Republican nomination. Cornyn, then-State Supreme Court Justice, got second place with 32% and Tom Pauken, former Chairman of the Texas Republican party, got third place with 30%. In the April run-off election, Cornyn defeated Williamson 58% to 42%. In the general election, Cornyn defeated Jim Mattox, former U.S. Congressman and Attorney General (1983–1991), with 54% of the vote. Cornyn became only the second Republican to have held the position.

Accomplishments
He created the Texas Internet Bureau to investigate illegal internet practices. He has fought against government waste and corruption with his investigation of fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims.

However, Cornyn was heavily criticized for failing to investigate in a timely manner the notorious false drug convictions of numerous African-Americans in Tulia, Texas. An Austin Chronicle article of Sept. 6, 2002 noted, "After months of criticism from civil rights groups and state and national media, state attorney general and U.S. Senate candidate John Cornyn announced that his office will finally investigate the notorious 1999 drug bust in the Panhandle town of Tulia. In most cases, the testimony of a single narcotics agent led to the arrests of 46 people -- 43 of whom were black. The accused represented 16% of the town's black population; 14 still languish in prisons scattered around Texas." See: http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2002-09-06/101775/

In 2005, Cornyn's name was mentioned among possibilities to replace Supreme Court justices Sandra Day O'Connor or William Rehnquist.

Elections

 * 2002

In the 2002 U.S. Senate Primary in Texas, Cornyn was the candidate promoted and supported by the Texas Republican Party in the Primary election. He easily defeated the five other candidates in the Republican Primary while disdaining the opportunity to debate the other candidates. Cornyn defeated his closest Republican challenger, Bruce Rusty Lang, a self-financed Dallas based international physician, in the Republican Primary election by a ten to one electoral margin. In the 2002 General election Candidate Cornyn defeated Democrat Ron Kirk in a campaign that cost each candidate over $18,000,000.


 * 2008

Texas has not elected a Democrat in a statewide election since 1994, and according to Rasmussen polling, in October 2008 Cornyn had an approval rating of 50%. Texas House of Representatives member/Afghanistan War veteran Rick Noriega secured his place as Cornyn's Democratic challenger in the March 4 primary, beating out opponents Gene Kelly, Ray McMurrey, and Rhett Smith. The same Rasmussen poll showed Cornyn leading Noriega 47% to 43%, suggesting that this race might have proved to be unexpectedly competitive. However, most polls showed a much wider margin. Christian activist Larry Kilgore of Mansfield, was a Republican challenger for the March 2008 primary election, but Cornyn easily won the Republican primary.

Yvonne Adams Schick was the Libertarian Party's nominee. In addition, the Green Party of Texas sought ballot access for its candidate David B. Collins.

Tenure
In 2004, Cornyn co-founded and became the co-chairman of the U.S. Senate India Caucus. Cornyn was selected by his colleagues in December 2006 to be a member of the five-person Republican Senate leadership team as Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

Cornyn has received various awards and recognitions, including the 2005 Border Texan of the Year Award; the National Child Support Enforcement Association's Children's Champion Award; the American Farm Bureau Federation's Friend of Farm Bureau Award; the Texas Association of Business's (TAB) Fighter for Free Enterprise Award; the National Federation of Independent Business's (NFIB) Guardian of Small Business Award; the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders's (CONLAMIC) Latino Leadership Award; and the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce's (TAMACC) International Leadership Legislative Award; among others.

In 2005, Cornyn gained notice by connecting the Supreme Court's reluctance to hear arguments for sustaining Terri Schiavo's life with the recent murders of Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and mother as well as that of Judge Rowland Barnes. "I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and building up to the point where some people engage in violence." His statement and a similar one by House Majority Leader Tom Delay were widely denounced, including The New York Times. Cornyn later said that he regretted the statement.

In 2005, Project on Government Oversight, a government watchdog group, presented Cornyn and Senator Patrick Leahy with its first ever Bi-Partisan Leadership Award in honor of their cooperation on issues of government oversight and transparency, including their co-sponsorship of the OPEN Government Act of 2005, which prevented burying exemptions from the Freedom of Information Act in legislation.

Cornyn has been described by Jim Jubak of MSN Money as one of "Big Oil's ten favorite members of Congress", as he has received more money from the oil and gas industry than all but six other members of Congress.

On the day of Obama's inauguration, it was reported that Cornyn would prevent Hillary Rodham Clinton from being confirmed as secretary of state by a unanimous floor vote that day. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman reported to the Associated Press that a roll call vote would be held instead on the following day, January 21, 2009, for the Clinton confirmation and that it was expected Clinton would "receive overwhelming bipartisan support". The vote was 94-2 in her favor, with only Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC) and David Vitter (R-LA) voting in opposition.

Cornyn also took the lead on resisting the nomination of Eric Holder for Attorney General, attempting to set up hypothetical questions which would have supported the use of torture. During the nomination hearings, Holder rejected the premise of that line of questioning and declined to endorse waterboarding as a legitimate law enforcement or national security tool.

As chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Cornyn was a strong supporter of Norm Coleman's various court challenges to the election certification. Cornyn advocated for Coleman to bring the case before the federal court, and had said the trial and appeals could take years to complete. Cornyn had threatened that Republicans would wage a "World War III" if the Senate Democrats had attempted to seat Franken before the appeals were complete. Coleman conceded after the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in favor of Franken. On November 14, 2012, Cornyn was elected Senate minority whip by his peers.

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Armed Services
 * Committee on the Budget
 * Committee on Finance
 * Subcommittee on Health Care
 * Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight, and Long-Term Growth
 * Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure
 * Committee on the Judiciary
 * Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights
 * Subcommittee on the Constitution
 * Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security (Ranking Member)
 * Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security

Political positions
Cornyn was ranked by National Journal as the seventeenth-most conservative United States Senator in their 2008 rankings. He was considered by the Dallas Morning News to be a reliable ally of former President George W. Bush on most issues.

Civil rights and law enforcement
In the 2004 debate surrounding the Federal Marriage Amendment, Cornyn released an advance copy of a speech he was to give at the Heritage Foundation. In the speech, he wrote, "It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right.... Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife." He removed the reference to the box turtle in the actual speech, but the Washington Post ran the quote, as did The Daily Show.

Cornyn sponsored a bill that would allow law enforcement to force anyone arrested or detained to provide samples of their DNA, which would be recorded in a central database. He voted to recommend a constitutional ban on flag desecration and for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. He also voted for the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act and extending its wiretap provision. He is rated "A" by the National Rifle Association. Cornyn said on December 20, 2005: "None of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead" in a speech supporting reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act.

Defense and homeland security
In 2005, Cornyn voted against additional funding for up-armored vehicles to protect troops in Afghanistan & Iraq. Cornyn voted against removing troops from Iraq by July 2007, and he later voted against removing them by March 2008. He voted against implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Report and restoring $565 million for states' and ports' first responders. He also voted against restricting businesses with ties to terrorism. He voted against preserving habeas corpus for Guantanamo detainees. Cornyn was one of only 22 Senators to vote against the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 that expands the educational benefits for soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, he co-sponsored SB 2938, which gives benefits that are dependent on length of service.

In 2012, Cornyn put a hold on the nomination of an assistant secretary of the Army, in an attempt to force a delay in the purchase of helicopters needed by the Afghan army to fight the Taliban so that Texas based companies could bid for the contract and provide helicopters that the Afghan forces would need new training for.

In August 2012, following news reports that a Akula-class nuclear-powered submarine operated in the Gulf of Mexico purportedly undetected for over a month, Cornyn demanded details of this deployment from Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert, the Chief of Naval Operations. ; ; ; and

Social policy
He voted to ban partial-birth abortions except in cases where the mother's life was in danger, and for a criminal penalty for harming a fetus while committing another crime. He also voted in favor of notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. He voted against expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. He voted to prevent contributions to organizations that provide abortion as a component of family planning, and to prevent funding of organizations that support coercive abortion.

Cornyn voted to confirm Samuel Alito as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and John Roberts for Chief Justice of the United States. In September 2005, during the Supreme Court hearings for Roberts, Cornyn's staff passed out bingo cards to reporters. He asked them to stamp their card every time a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee used terms such as "far right" or "extremist".

On July 24, 2009, Cornyn announced his intention to vote against President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, citing his opinion that she might rule "from a liberal, activist perspective".

Fiscal policy
John Cornyn voted to permanently repeal the estate tax and for raising the estate tax exemption to $5 million. He voted in favor of $350 billion in tax cuts over 11 years and supports making the George W. Bush tax cuts permanent. However, he stands opposed to extending the 2011 payroll tax holiday.

Cornyn is a cosponsor of the Fair Tax Act of 2007, but the use of the word "fair" in relation to this act is controversial, as it has been called into question by non-partisan sources such as FactCheck.org. Specifically, FactCheck.org states "We found that while there are several good economic arguments for the FairTax, unless you earn more than $200,000 per year, fairness is not one of them." John Cornyn also voted for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 but against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009.

In 2005, Cornyn voted against including oil and gas smokestacks in mercury regulations. He voted against factoring global warming into federal project planning, and against banning drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He also voted against removing oil and gas exploration subsidies. During his tenure in the Senate, Cornyn has scored 0% on the League of Conservation Voters' environmental scorecard, a system of ranking politicians according to their voting record on environmental legislation.

Cornyn opposed President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Personal life
Cornyn and his wife, Sandy Hansen, have two daughters.

Cornyn gained national attention when he released a video referring to himself as "Big Bad John". The video was featured on comedy shows such as The Colbert Report and The Daily Show.

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