From The Texas Tribune:
Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, entered the Republican primary for U.S. Senate on Monday, complicating an already contentious race between two of the biggest names in Texas Republican politics.
Hunt, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has laid the groundwork for a potential run for months. While the second-term congressman spent the summer publicly avoiding the fray between Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, groups affiliated with Hunt dropped some $6 million on ads boosting his profile around the state. And Hunt’s allies have been busy pressing the case that he would carry stronger appeal than Cornyn among the MAGA-dominated primary base, while bringing none of Paxton’s political baggage to the general election.
“The U.S. Senate race in Texas must be about more than a petty feud between two men who have spent months trading barbs,” Hunt said in a statement. “With my candidacy, this race will finally be about what’s most important: Texas.”
A 43-year old former Army captain, Hunt will need to quickly familiarize himself to voters outside his Houston district, as he looks to outpace two opponents who have been elected statewide numerous times. He will also have to overcome the war chest of groups like the National Republican Senatorial Committee — Senate Republicans’ multimillion-dollar campaign arm — which is backing Cornyn and recently discouraged Hunt from entering the race.
Cornyn senior adviser Matt Mackowiak said in a statement that Hunt’s “quixotic quest for relevancy” would only boost Democrats by sparking a more expensive primary “that will endanger the Trump agenda from being passed.” The Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC allied with Majority Leader John Thune, also maligned Hunt’s entry into the race.
“It’s unfortunate that Wesley Hunt has decided to abandon President Trump’s efforts to protect the House majority and instead pursue his political ambitions, also turning his back on the Texans who entrusted him with their vote,” SLF Communications Director Chris Gustafson said. “With every credible poll showing him in a distant third place, the only person celebrating today is a giddy Chuck Schumer.”
But Hunt believes the disapproval of establishment groups will not matter to Texas voters.
“Washington does not get to dictate what happens in Texas,” he said. “Bureaucrats in D.C. do not choose Texas’ leadership; Texans do. This race will be settled by Texans, not entrenched political figures from inside the beltway.”
The most important Washingtonian who could determine the outcome of the primary — President Donald Trump — has not endorsed any candidate.
With less than five months until the March primary, the Cornyn-Paxton race has already proven expensive and brutal. Cornyn, a 23-year veteran of the Senate, has been in hot water with the Republican base over his efforts to pass a bipartisan gun safety bill in 2022 and past comments casting doubt on Trump’s political durability.
Both have been at the center of Paxton’s attacks on Cornyn since the firebrand attorney general announced his entry into the race in April. Hunt will likely pitch himself as ideologically similar to Paxton but without the ethical and legal troubles that have dogged the attorney general over his decade as the state’s top civil lawyer. Those include corruption allegations that were the subject of an impeachment effort and federal probe, both of which Paxton weathered. More recently, Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce and accused her husband of adultery, deepening concerns among some Republicans who fear Paxton could jeopardize the seat in a general election.
The latest public polling of the primary has found that Cornyn has eroded Paxton’s once runaway lead, tightening the contest to a single-digit margin and even leading in a few polls. In surveys measuring a hypothetical three-man contest, Hunt has consistently placed third and pulled voters from both Cornyn and Paxton. But at least one poll, conducted by an allied group and shared with Punchbowl News, found Hunt beating either candidate in a head-to-head matchup. Republican operatives believe his best bet would be to finish second in the March primary and force a runoff in late May, buying more time to introduce himself to voters.
A West Point graduate and Houston native, Hunt first entered politics in the 2020 election cycle as a top GOP recruit for a battleground congressional seat. After winning his primary with the backing of Trump, Hunt lost to Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, by 3 percentage points. But the momentum from that race allowed Hunt to easily claim a new Houston-area seat created during post-census redistricting that stretched from the city’s affluent west side to the northwest suburb of Tomball.
He has represented the district, where the oil and gas industry is concentrated, since 2023, focusing mostly on energy policy and supporting law enforcement. Hunt sits on the Judiciary and Natural Resources Committees. His most significant legislative accomplishment to date was the passage of the Recruit and Retain Act, a bipartisan bill signed by then-President Joe Biden aimed at shoring up police staffing by letting local law enforcement use federal grant money for onboarding costs and partnerships with schools.
Hunt was an eager supporter of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, and one of just three Texas Republican members of Congress to endorse Trump out of the gate when he launched his comeback bid. Paxton was also an early endorser, while Cornyn did not come on board until after Trump decisively won the New Hampshire primary.
With less than five months remaining until the March primary, Cornyn allies have spent around $19 million on ads, many of them deployed over the summer with a focus on touting the senior senator’s pro-Trump voting record and attacking Paxton on a series of issues — including the revelation this year that he had secured lower interest rates by improperly claiming multiple homes as his primary residence.
Paxton, meanwhile, has yet to begin airing ads in bulk. Most polls have shown a significant portion of voters remain undecided, with no candidate eclipsing the 50% mark needed to avoid a runoff.
Hunt’s decision to run for Senate also creates a vacancy in his 38th Congressional District, which voted for Trump by 20 percentage points last year. The 38th District will become one of at least seven open districts that favor Republicans, between retirements and the creation of new seats via mid-decade redistricting. The glut of competitive primaries will likely drive up ad prices for primary candidates in many Texas media markets, including those running statewide.
Hunt had about $3 million in his campaign account at last count. Cornyn reported close to $6 million, while Paxton disclosed a war chest of $2.5 million.
