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Cornyn Swings Through North Texas, Urging Supporters To Vote

U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R) at a campaign stop in Plano on Thursday.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R) at a campaign stop in Plano on Thursday.

Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn brought his campaign bus to Plano on Thursday, in between stops in Tyler and Wichita Falls.

He trumpeted the confirmation of new Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, as well as the many conservative federal judges he has helped install on the federal bench.

“Senator Cruz and I have been proud to recommend to President Trump and see confirmed 21 Texas judges in the last three and half years. Outstanding public servants,” he told a crowd of Republican voters and activists.

Speaking to reporters, Cornyn denied Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told the White House not to make a new deal on coronavirus relief, contradicting reports from multiplenews outlets. He also pointed to his votes from the spring on bipartisan coronavirus relief packages, and blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the current aid impasse.

Cornyn also said President Trump was “absolutely” an asset in Cornyn’s campaign for a fourth term. Polls have shown Cornyn ahead in his race against Democrat M.J. Hegar, while the race for president is considered a toss up by the Cook Political Report.

Hegar made a trip to North Texas earlier this month. During a stop in Fort Worth, she criticized Cornyn and his party for not doing more to negotiate another deal on a relief package.

“He’s not delivering,” she said. “People are dying because of his policy positions.”

Cornyn's Plano visit was an end-of-campaign, get-out-the-vote effort. The suburbs north of Dallas are among the state’s and country’s most competitive areas.

Fairview resident Cora Fortin, a Republican, said she had been turning out her neighbors.

“I have people in my neighborhood that I put in my car and took them out to vote,” she said. “I’m just trying to make sure everybody votes.”

Got a tip? Email Bret Jaspers at bjaspers@kera.org. You can follow Bret on Twitter @bretjaspers.

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Democrat M.J. Hegar at a Senate campaign event in Fort Worth on October 18.
Bret Jaspers / KERA
Democrat M.J. Hegar at a Senate campaign event in Fort Worth on October 18.

Bret Jaspers is a reporter for KERA. His stories have aired nationally on the BBC, NPR’s newsmagazines, and APM’s Marketplace. He collaborated on the series Cash Flows, which won a 2020 Sigma Delta Chi award for Radio Investigative Reporting. He's a member of Actors' Equity, the professional stage actors union.