EXCLUSIVE – Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) has a warning for Republicans infuriated over his Senate campaign: They’re in danger of repeating the same mistake Democrats made with former President Joe Biden in 2024.
In the analogy, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), 73, is the unpopular, elderly incumbent seeking reelection despite signs that he will lose, similar to Biden.
But Hunt, 44, claims that his age and his strong Make America Great Again ties to President Donald Trump can help boost his campaign in the GOP primary against Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, 63.
“It literally is the exact same scenario. It’s the exact same thing. And even the Democrats had to realize that Joe Biden was getting ready to lose, and had to make a quick switch in the witching hour,” Hunt told the Washington Examiner in an interview.
“It’s a very similar scenario that we have right here. And what the establishment and what the people in D.C. have to understand and what they have to realize is that, again, I didn’t do this to spite John Cornyn,” he continued. “I didn’t do this to spite Ken Paxton. I did this to give the people of Texas a true conservative alternative that can carry on the America First mantle for years to come.”
Hunt’s entrance into the race is exacerbating an already contentious primary between Cornyn and Paxton. Cornyn filed an open records request to determine whether Paxton used taxpayer funds to pay for trips to meet his alleged mistress in September, and is generally making the case that Paxton is too scandal-ridden to be successful.
Paxton was impeached by the Texas House in 2023 and acquitted by the state Senate. Later, his wife, Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce on biblical grounds.
National Republicans, meanwhile, are arguing that Hunt’s entrance will cost the groups millions of dollars to defend Cornyn that could be spent in Georgia and North Carolina. As an incumbent, Cornyn is backed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and the Senate Leadership Fund, Senate Republicans’ top super PAC.
In a sign of the bitterness the GOP primary is fueling, Hunt was even mocked for his physical appearance by Jennifer DeCasper, executive director of the NRSC, on X earlier this month.
Last month, a Cornyn spokesman excoriated Hunt’s voting record and claimed he would finish last in the primary race.
“Wesley Hunt has missed 27% of House votes this year, when President Trump needed him with a narrow majority. He has passed one bill while in Congress. He’s a legend in his own mind. He will finish third in this race for US Senate in March,” said Matt Mackowiak, senior adviser of the Cornyn campaign. “These are facts. John Cornyn is a work horse, as everyone who has ever worked with him recognizes. While show ponies like Wesley Hunt tape podcasts and post on social media, John Cornyn keeps his head down, does the work, and achieves victories for Texas.”
In the interview, Hunt brushed off the attacks, insisting his background as a West Point graduate and Apache helicopter pilot had trained him for the party infighting.
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“They don’t understand the mind of an Apache pilot is what I’ve discovered. This may be nasty and brutal to certain people. But to me, it’s absolutely nothing. In fact, it’s quite encouraging,” he said. “It means that we’re barking up the right tree. It means that we’re upsetting the right people. Because this is Texas, and Texas’s leadership is not going to be picked by the NRSC, by SLF, by Jennifer DeCasper for damn sure, or anybody else. The people of Texas are going to be the ones that decide that.”
And though Hunt claims that any of the three Republicans will perform well in the general election if Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), a progressive firebrand, prevails in the Democratic primary, he argued that state Rep. James Talarico, the other Democratic competitor, “could be a problem for two candidates, but not for me.”
A December poll from J.L. Partners showed Paxton leading the primary at 29% with Cornyn and Hunt tied at 24%. Another December poll from co/efficient showed Cornyn leading at 28%, Paxton at 27%, and Hunt at 19%.
In terms of internal polling, a Hunt super PAC found that in a three-way primary, Paxton pulls 36% support, Hunt pulls 26%, and Cornyn pulls 25%.
Hunt’s claim that the GOP needs new leadership resembles a recent upswell in grassroots opposition to Democratic Party elders in Congress and beyond after Biden’s ill-fated reelection campaign was blamed for their 2024 losses at the ballot box.
In terms of electability, Hunt is making the case that Paxton, although somewhat younger than Cornyn, is not a viable alternative.
“Ken Paxton is very popular, but he cannot get the 50% in a three-way race with us; he is still polling in the 30s. So yes, he is popular. He was far more popular than John Cornyn,” said Hunt. “But there are also a lot of people that are looking for an alternative, as well.”
Cornyn, first elected to the Senate in 2002, can’t advance out of the primary, as far as Hunt is concerned, and the prospect of a three-way race has dramatically increased the odds of a runoff next year.
“At the end of the day, when you have a 24-year incumbent that’s polling in the 20s and 30s and is not polling in the 60s, the response to that should not be, ‘Let’s spend $65 million’ — the response to that should be, ‘Hold on. Maybe it’s time for us to have another candidate,’” said Hunt.
The president has not yet weighed in on the primary, likely due to close ties with both Paxton and Hunt. Although Cornyn touts a 99% voting record with Trump, he voted to certify the 2020 election, as did most GOP lawmakers and all Democrats.
Hunt served as a campaign surrogate for Trump in 2024, engaging with black voters who nearly doubled their support for Trump to 15% last year, compared to the 8% who voted for Trump in 2020.
Hunt has pointed out that many of the most high-profile Texas Republicans have also not weighed in on the race.
“I’ll also point to you that [Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)] has not endorsed in this primary. The governor has not endorsed in this primary. The lieutenant governor has not endorsed in the primary,” said Hunt. “No one has endorsed a 20-year incumbent in this race, which means that everybody understands, but nobody wants to really say it out loud, in the Republican primary, John Cornyn is done. I thank him for his service … and it’s time to move on and pass this baton on.”
The Texas congressman, first elected to the House in 2022, is trying to earn the Trump endorsement before the March 3 GOP primary next year. If none of the three candidates secures the majority during the primary, the top two candidates advance to the May 26 runoff.
“The president doesn’t give you anything. You have to earn his endorsement,” he said. “Him staying out of this race, especially this long, especially not endorsing a 24-year incumbent early, when I know for a fact leadership has been asking him numerous times to endorse John Cornyn, just let us know that the president still wants to see how this thing plays out, and wants to see who is going to perform, and, most importantly, who is going to do the work to earn it.”
Trump has already endorsed at least one other black House Republican seeking higher office next year. He endorsed another 2024 campaign surrogate, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), in February as he runs to succeed Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as governor in Florida.
Trump has not yet endorsed Rep. John James’s (R-MI) gubernatorial bid to succeed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), although James, like Hunt, remains confident he will eventually secure the Trump imprimatur.
If Hunt were to win the GOP primary and then win the general election, he would make history as the Lone Star State’s first black senator, although he insisted his race is not about identity.
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“The one thing I’ve been very good at is standing on my résumé, standing on who I am as a person, standing on the fact that I’m a combat veteran, standing on the fact that I’m a West Point grad, a husband, a father. I come from a lineage of military service,” he said. “And last I checked, black, white or indifferent, [we’ve] never had a senator that had those credentials ever in the history of the state of Texas.”
“And so I am a lot of things before I am black. And I am black, and I am proud, say it loud. But the most important thing to me is I’m an American,” he continued. “And I am a Texan, and I’m somebody that bleeds red, white, and blue. I’m someone that bleeds Texas, and that’s exactly what the people want.”
