Overview
- Sen. John Cornyn introduced legislation in early May to redesignate U.S. Highway 287 as Interstate 47 and call it the “Trump Interstate,” but he said the measure “may not make it into my priorities the next seven months” after losing the Republican primary runoff.
- Cornyn was defeated by Ken Paxton in the May 26 Republican primary runoff after President Trump endorsed Paxton instead of Cornyn, a development that undercut Cornyn’s effort to win the president’s favor.
- State Rep. Jared Patterson has announced plans to pursue a faster, local option by filing a resolution to ask the North Texas Tollway Authority to rename the Dallas North Tollway the “Donald J. Trump Tollway.”
- Upgrading a U.S. highway to an interstate requires multi-state coordination, federal standards and funding and can take years, while state or local renamings like tollway name changes follow simpler, quicker procedures.
- Since his loss, Cornyn has shown signs of repositioning by publicly questioning the qualifications of Bill Pulte for a national security role and posting a fable on social media that observers read as a critique of the president, a shift that could change his posture in the final months of his term.