Washington, George
1789–1797

Washington's Farewell Address is the urtext on the dangers of 'the spirit of faction' that agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies, and he warned specifically against leaders who would put party loyalty above country. Cornyn is the strongest match to Washington's anti-faction institutionalism on this ballot: voted to certify Biden's 2020 election on January 6, defended Senate filibuster norms, lost the 2024 Senate Republican Leader race to Thune 29-23 but accepted the outcome, and has stayed institutionally measured even as Paxton's primary challenge and Trump's endorsement have made personalist politics personally costly. Paxton's primary-campaign assault on a sitting Republican senator, his impeachment for abuse of office, and his alliance with a political movement explicitly built around personal loyalty to a leader are the precise pattern Washington feared. This is the cleanest single grader for Cornyn over Paxton on the entire ballot.