John Cornyn is an American politician and attorney who has been serving as the senior United States senator from Texas since 2002. After completing his law degree, he began private practice in San Antonio before serving as a judge on Texas's 37th District Court from 1985 to 1991. A member of the Republican Party, he was then elected an associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court, on which he served for seven years. He was elected Attorney General of Texas in 1998 and became the first Texas Attorney General in nearly 20 years to personally appear before the U.S. Supreme Court, that also on two occasions. He left after one term as he won a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2002. He has since won reelection three times in 2008, 2014 and 2020. He served as the Senate majority whip for the 114th and 115th Congresses, and was chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2009 to 2013.
