Congress
GOP Drama: Cotton Seeks Intelligence Chair, Thwarting Cornyn
Senate Republicans have discussed elevating Sen. John Cornyn to chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to party officials, a move that would hand Cornyn a prized gavel as consolation for losing his GOP leader bid and could help induce him to run for reelection in two years.
The complication, and almost certain deal-breaker: Cornyn would have to leapfrog the Republican next in line to chair the Intelligence Committee, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and Cotton has privately made clear to Cornyn he would claim the position.
Likely ensuring Cotton’s ascension to the chair is the raw politics of last month’s Senate Republican leadership race between Cornyn and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.). A select rather than standing committee, the intelligence panel’s chair is chosen by the majority leader. And Cotton supported Thune on the private ballot, according to a third Senate Republican, and now Thune is poised to reward him rather than the man he defeated.
A spokesperson for Thune declined to comment.
Asked if he expects to claim the gavel, Cotton on Tuesday said, “No comment.”
On Tuesday night, Cotton spokeswoman Caroline Tabler said: “Senator Thune has told Senator Cotton he’s taking over as chair. He is hiring staff, working with Senator [Marco] Rubio (R-Fla.) on the transition, and planning with Senator [Mark] Warner (D-Va.) for January confirmation hearings.”
A Cornyn representative declined to comment.
But I’m told the Arkansan has already started hiring staff and refused to be coaxed into letting Cornyn take the chair, which will be open because of Rubio’s appointment as Secretary of State. Cornyn approached Cotton to take his temperature about the post last month after the leader race, I’m told by a Republican senator, and Cotton responded by saying: “I’m going to be the chairman.”
Cornyn said after his defeat in the leader race that he planned to seek a fifth term in 2026. Yet some of the Texan’s colleagues are more skeptical, in part because Cornyn could face a formidable primary challenge from state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Offering Cornyn, a 72-year-old former judge well-liked by his colleagues, control of the panel that oversees the country’s intelligence programs was seen as a win-win, according to two GOP officials who described the considerations. He’d claim a weighty position at a moment of conflict abroad and tensions at home over the country’s intelligence and law enforcement services. And Cotton would not be without a significant post, after his victory last month for conference chair, the third-ranking slot in the Senate GOP leadership.
Cornyn served as the second-ranking Senate Republican and chaired the NRSC but, as he enters his 22nd year in the chamber, has yet to chair a committee. And because he came to the intelligence panel later in his career than 47-year-old Cotton, who was first elected to the Senate in 2014, he’s more junior than his much younger colleague.
Some well-placed Republicans hoped Cotton could be satisfied, and occupied, with his new leadership post as Senate GOP conference chair. Other Republican officials, though, were skeptical that Cotton, an Army veteran who was also eyed for a national security appointment in the Trump administration, would be so benevolent as to give up the gavel.
The previously unreported discussions among GOP senators come weeks after Cornyn fell five votes short to Thune, a race the Texan had planned for years and privately expressed confidence he would win. Lamenting the uncertainty of the secret ballot contest after his loss, the Texan ruefully identified with another lawmaker who was defeated for a leadership position and was forced to write “27 thank you notes for 24 votes.”
A close ally of former President George W. Bush and Karl Rove, Cornyn was state attorney general before claiming his Senate seat in Bush’s first midterm election. He went on to become Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell’s deputy for six years and, since leaving the leadership, has become something of a deal-maker. He helped negotiate, for example, the bipartisan firearms bill that passed the Senate after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Ever the affable and even-keeled jurist, Cornyn has not had a natural relationship with Trump. But the senator has tried to sustain a relationship with the once and future president, an effort which may have ensured Trump’s neutrality in the leader race. After meeting this week with Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director and the author of an enemies list of Trump adversaries, Cornyn said he was “inclined to support him, barring some unforeseen circumstances.”
The test of Cornyn’s friendship with the president-elect, though, will come should the much-anticipated showdown between the senator and Paxton, Texas’s current attorney general, come to fruition. Trump is close to Paxton, who played a key role in the president-elect’s effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
And now that Trump is in charge of the Department of Justice once more, it’s highly unlikely the federal corruption probe into Paxton will continue. The Texas attorney general has already been acquitted by the Texas Senate in an impeachment trial and agreed to a deal on local charges, for which he’d perform community service and avoid a guilty plea.
Paxton has been circling Cornyn, and without much subtlety, so much so that last year the senator memorably shot back: “Hard to run from prison, Ken.”
Since losing his race against Thune, Cornyn has publicly and privately insisted he will run again in 2026, seeking to serve in the Senate for the remainder of his 70s.
If he does fend off Paxton, though, Cornyn is in line to be Senate Finance chair in 2027.
Invoking the lawmaker he succeeded, Cornyn noted that former Sen. Phil Gramm, while not in “elected leadership, was always in the middle of some of the hardest issues that confronted the Congress and was a warrior. And I think it’s a pretty good role model.”
There is, though, another model. After former Sen. Alan K. Simpson, a Wyoming Republican who like Cornyn had served as whip, lost a leadership race by a single vote after Republicans claimed the majority in 1994, he retired when his term was up two years later.
House Democrats’ campaign arm is expanding its target list just three weeks ahead of Election Day, going on the air for the first time in four more districts with coordinated ad buys with the candidates.
The move, part of $13 million in coordinated ads launching this week across 39 districts and first shared with Blue Light News, is the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s largest reach of investments this cycle as Republicans are working to defend a slew of redder seats in the final stretch.
The new districts include a toss-up race in Florida’s newly redrawn 22nd District, which Trump would have won by 10 points in 2024, as well as for Democrats’ uphill fight to defend Maine’s 2nd District, which President Donald Trump carried by nine points and where Democratic Rep. Jared Golden is retiring.
They’re also launching coordinated ads in New Jersey’s swingy 7th District, squarely within New York City’s expensive media market, where Democrats are working to unseat GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr.
The coordinated ad buys also include Texas’s redrawn 35th District, where Democrat Johnny Garcia is running neck and neck with Republican Carlos De La Cruz in a suburban San Antonio district Republicans drew to win that Trump would have carried by 10 points.
The DCCC’s move comes as President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc.-aligned super PAC and a leading House GOP super PAC are planning to ditch spending in a group of House races in the coming days, as they race to shore up other House seats and salvage the Senate GOP majority.
“As Republicans pull out of media markets and cede that they are no longer competitive in multiple districts, the DCCC is continuing to go on the offensive,” DCCC National Political Director Brooke Butler said.
The NRCC has been up with ads in the four districts for weeks.
“While Democrats are just now scraping together the cash to bail out their radical socialists in critical battleground districts, House Republicans have been dominating the airwaves in those same districts and dozens more for weeks,” NRCC spokesperson Mike Marinella said. “The DCCC is desperately playing catch-up where Republicans have already lapped them.”
The DCCC didn’t share the exact size of the specific coordinated ad buys, only saying they were six-figure commitments.
Former Rep. Mary Peltola raked in $17 million over the last three months, her campaign shared first with Blue Light News, a sizable haul for the Democratic challenger in one of the biggest Senate battlegrounds.
It’s Peltola’s largest quarterly fundraising total in her bid to oust GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan. Her campaign also said it’s a record third-quarter sum for a Senate candidate in Alaska.
“Alaskans are sick and tired of DC politicians making life more expensive for everyone while they keep lining their own pockets, and they know it’s time for a change,” Peltola said in a statement thanking her supporters.
That total includes nearly $3 million in Peltola raised in July, before Alaska’s all-party primary in August, which was previously reported to the Federal Election Commission. Peltola’s campaign did not release her cash on hand for the quarter that ended Oct. 1.
Sullivan’s campaign has not yet released his third-quarter numbers. Sullivan had just under $7.3 million in cash on hand as of July 29, while Peltola had $4.6 million at that point.
Alaska has emerged as a core battleground this cycle as both parties reorient around redder states while Georgia and North Carolina tilt toward Democrats. Recent polls show a tight race.
Republicans are racing to shore up Sullivan in the four-way, ranked-choice general election in which the senator is also facing a same-name challenger in retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan. Some in the party fear he could siphon votes from the incumbent.
President Donald Trump is heading to Alaska for a rally later Tuesday in Wasilla that Sullivan is slated to attend, the senator’s campaign confirmed. Vice President JD Vance swung through the state last week.
Peltola’s fundraising prowess has helped her hold her own on the airwaves. Republicans hold a slim spending advantage on the TV ad reservations for the final three weeks of the campaign, with both parties posting over $9 million in reservations, per tracker AdImpact.
Republicans’ dreams of a productive lame-duck session are dimming.
Members returning to Washington post-election will have a mere 24 legislative days to get through a considerable list of must-pass bills and possibly messy internal leadership fights. That’s if they can overcome a potential transition of power on Capitol Hill and a foul national mood.
Lawmakers’ must-do list includes: an extension of government funding past Dec. 11 and the annual Pentagon policy bill. Major legislation to reauthorize farm, transportation and surveillance programs are also on deck.
Then there are pending bipartisan bills overhauling energy permitting and the college sports industry that many members are itching to get done.
And finally, leaders had deferred some GOP priorities — such as another party-line reconciliation bill or debt-limit increase through the end of President Donald Trump’s term.
All of the measures face their own potential political minefields individually, as well as a number of obstacles across the board:
— ATTENDANCE: There will be little incentive for lawmakers who just lost their seats — “free-range chickens,” some call them — to grind out legislative wins, if they come back at all.
“The question becomes: Who shows up for work after the elections?” Rep. Austin Scott said in an interview. “Attendance is an issue right now.”
— NEW LEVERAGE: If Democrats win control of either chamber, they’ll likely seek greater influence on legislation to push back on Trump’s actions.
For example, Democrats are fuming over the Trump administration’s recent decision to block roughly $1 billion in congressionally approved funding, which could complicate any deal on spending legislation. They’ve also blocked the annual Pentagon policy bill amid a standoff over the Iran war; and they may push for more concessions on the permitting deal.
“The lame duck will be quite different if we win the Senate,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a recent interview.
— GOP DISPUTES: While some Republicans believe that losing a chamber would jump-start the reconciliation process, others privately believe the exact opposite would happen, with incentives waning for exiting lawmakers, according to three GOP aides granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Other GOP senators, like Sen. Cynthia Lummis, are skeptical of a debt-limit increase.
A Democratic flip of the House could also spark a potentially chaotic cascade of GOP leadership elections (more on that below).
Sen. John Kennedy speculated Congress’ agenda would all come down to the vibes of the GOP conference when they returned.
“You have no idea what the mood is going to be,” Kennedy said.
What else we’re watching:
— JOHNSON SCRAMBLES LEADERSHIP OUTLOOK: Republicans are reassessing the dynamics of potential leadership races after Speaker Mike Johnson‘s comments Monday that he would run for minority leader if the GOP loses the House — just days after he floated leaving Congress altogether in that scenario. Many Republicans had predicted Johnson would step aside with a House flip, likely setting off a race between Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan for the top GOP spot. If Johnson stays put, his success may depend on the severity of the party’s loss and if Trump weighs in for a certain candidate. “I hope he’s smarter than that,” one House Republican said of Johnson’s consideration of the minority leader role. “It would end very badly and cause unnecessary damage to the conference.”
— DEMS GEAR UP ON TRADE OVERSIGHT — Democrats on the House Ways and Means, Senate Finance and other panels say Trump’s trade deals were corrupt, and they’re already lining up targets to probe. The party knows it can’t repeal Trump’s tariffs as long as he’s in the White House, but if they win control of Congress, they plan to haul in top administration officials and possibly executives to explain how Trump picked his targets in his trade war — and if others got a pass through suspected quid pro quos.
Jordain Carney, Daniel Desrochers and Oliver Ward contributed to this report.
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