Cornyn votes for Trump diplomatic nominees after securing funds for global HIV/AIDS initiative
By Samanta Habashy, The Texas Tribune
July 22, 2026
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn reversed course Wednesday when he cast his vote to advance two of Donald Trump’s diplomatic nominees after threatening not to if the White House did not distribute funds intended for a U.S. global initiative on HIV/AIDS prevention.
Semafor reported that the Texas Republican leveraged his role on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to get the White House to the table on the President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (PEPFAR). In the interview, Cornyn said he would not support Kari Lake’s ambassadorship to Jamaica or Doug Mastriano’s to Slovakia as a means of unlocking the freeze on the global fund meant for HIV/AIDS prevention.
“The only way it seems like you can get the administration’s attention on some of these funding issues is by using the leverage to withhold votes on nominees,” Cornyn said Tuesday in a Semafor interview.
The Trump administration ordered a sweeping review of foreign aid in January 2025, which froze the bipartisan, Bush-era disbursements for PEPFAR, credited with saving 26 million lives as well as making possible 7.8 million HIV-free births as of 2024. Global health experts and agencies like the World Health Organization say the program has helped strengthen health systems across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Cornyn ultimately backed down after receiving assurances from the White House that the congressionally appropriated PEPFAR money would be released, more than $270 million. Cornyn also expects a clear plan for how the administration will deploy PEPFAR money rather than letting the money sit idle.
A Cornyn spokesperson told The Texas Tribune that “he will be closely watching future action on PEPFAR to ensure they make good on these assurances ahead of a floor vote on these nominations.”
The nominations advanced out of the committee Wednesday with a 12-10 vote and are headed to the full Senate for a majority vote, where it’s unlikely they will encounter any further opposition.
After losing his Republican primary runoff, Cornyn has increasingly used his remaining time in office to directly challenge key parts of the Trump administration’s agenda.
Last month, Cornyn told Semafor there was a “price” for his vote, pushing the White House to unlock more than $10 billion in long-delayed border security reimbursements Texas is owed.
Looking ahead to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation vote likely later this month, Cornyn has been noncommittal, raising alarms as one of the key GOP votes on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Cornyn cited concerns with the nominee’s involvement in the proposed “anti-weaponization” settlement that would funnel over $1.5 billion dollars into a fund to compensate claims of political lawfare and grant Trump and his family broad immunity from past tax issues.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.