U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas may enter his state’s Republican primary for a Senate seat, adding more intrigue to what is already a marquee midterm contest.
Hunt this month discussed a potential Senate bid with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and political director James Blair, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The meeting occurred days after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced his primary challenge of four-term Sen. John Cornyn, two of the people said.
A political action committee is running ads across Texas promoting Hunt’s biography in cities well outside his Houston-area district. One of the ads has also aired in Washington and in West Palm Beach, Florida, home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, according to media tracking firm AdImpact.
A Hunt bid for Senate could assuage national and Texas Republicans worried about Cornyn, whose past Trump criticisms and support for gun regulations have angered the state’s Republican base. It might also address concerns about Paxton, who faced impeachment proceedings and a federal investigation that he abused his office to aid a political donor — even as he remains one of the state’s most powerful Republicans.
But it also could put Trump in a position to have to endorse one or more of the three candidates and alienate parts of his base who support the other candidates.
Hunt, who is Black, campaigned frequently for Trump last year, attending events geared to Black men, and is known to be close to Trump’s political team.
Hunt has served two terms in the House. A graduate of West Point and Cornell University, Hunt piloted Apache helicopters in the Iraq War.
Hunt’s profile has risen sharply in the past five years, starting with Trump’s endorsement in a six-way GOP House primary in 2020. He lost that November but won election to the House two years later.
Hunt’s district spans some of the wealthiest establishment Republican areas in the country, notably Houston’s River Oaks neighborhood, along with more working-class reaches of Harris County.
He was quick to endorse Trump’s 2024 campaign for president, just two days after the former president announced his candidacy on Nov. 15, 2022, and campaigned across the country for him. Trump rewarded Hunt with a prime-time speaking slot on the first night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last summer.
During an April 8 event at the White House, Trump was recognizing lawmakers in attendance when he called out Hunt and the ad airing on television. That was the same day Paxton entered the race.
“Wesley Hunt, my friend too,” Trump noted from the podium in the East Room. “Wesley, great, I love your commercial.”
Cornyn has a long legislative record and served for decades in elected office in Texas. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has asked Trump directly to endorse Cornyn, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Referring to Cornyn and other incumbent Republican senators facing challenges within the party, Thune suggested last week that the party leadership party should stand by them.
“These are incumbent Republican senators who are members of our team and do a good job for their states, their constituencies,” he said.
But Cornyn, who narrowly lost the leadership election to Thune in December, is unpopular with a segment of Texas Republicans for distancing himself from Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol, though he voted against the House impeachment.
Paxton has had a more consistent history of backing Trump and stronger base bona fides. He began his campaign on April 8 promising to confront “career politicians” in Washington. Paxton also has repeatedly criticized Cornyn for supporting a bipartisan gun restriction measure after the 2022 elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
The Cornyn and Paxton campaigns had no comment on Hunt’s moves. An email request for comment from the White House confirming the meeting with Hunt and on Trump’s plans for endorsing in the Texas race was not immediately returned.
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
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