House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had to temporarily hold off on bringing the final four government funding bills up for a final passage until a lone Texas Republican could return to the Capitol.
Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX), who makes $175,000 a year representing Texas’s 38th Congressional District, has missed votes all week and most of the month while campaigning for the Republican nomination for Senate.
The Washington Examiner confirmed that Hunt had to return to Washington, D.C., from Texas, where he has been campaigning against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). He did so at the request of Johnson, who has been facing difficulty in passing contentious bills due to the GOP’s thin margins.
A spokeswoman for House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) said the whip did “not tell Rep. Hunt to stay in Texas.”
“The whip has made it abundantly clear to the GOP conference that unless there is a life or death situation, we need all members here for votes,” the spokeswoman said.
Hunt’s return to Capitol Hill comes after reporting that he was told by GOP leaders he could stay in Texas as early as Tuesday. A source familiar with Hunt told the Washington Examiner that “Speaker Johnson was the very first person to notify Rep. Hunt at 12:30 PM ET today that he was needed in DC.”
“After their phone call, Rep. Hunt immediately departed for the airport to head to DC,” the source said.
Since the House came back into session in the New Year, Hunt has missed 35 of 38 votes. Johnson told reporters around noon that he had not spoken to Hunt this week, after the procedural rule vote to advance the appropriations bills, which narrowly passed this morning.
“I expected him to be here, so it was a surprise to me,” Johnson said.
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Thirty minutes later, the speaker called Hunt to return to Washington. Votes were tentatively scheduled for 3:45 p.m., but that window broadened to 3:45 p.m. to 4:15 pm, per a whip notice — likely due to both debate on the floor and to give Hunt time to get to the Capitol.
Hunt’s absence in the House has become a campaign gift to Cornyn, who is fighting off two Republican challengers in the 2026 Senate primary. Attorney General Ken Paxton is also vying to be the next senator, making it one of the most competitive primaries for this fall’s election season.
“Wesley Hunt is refusing to fight for Trump’s agenda by putting his selfish political ambitions before his responsibilities,” Cornyn campaign spokesman Matt Mackowiak said in a statement. “He needs to do his job.”
