Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt is running for the US Senate in Texas, defying Senate GOP management and including a brand new component to an already contentious main marketing campaign.
The two-term Houston-area congressman stated he’s running as a result of he doesn’t consider Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, who’s had a cool relationship with President Donald Trump, has proven he can beat Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s running regardless of being shadowed by authorized and private points.
“What I’ve seen in polling over the past few months is people want an alternative, and I’m going to give it to them,” Hunt stated in an Associated Press interview on Sunday.
Senate Republican leaders have apprehensive aloud that questions which have dogged Paxton, who entered the race in April, would price the social gathering many hundreds of thousands extra {dollars} to defend in a normal election, regardless of Texas’ Republican lean.
Yet, Senate Republican leaders together with Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have publicly chided Hunt, who’s been weighing a Senate marketing campaign since April.
Hunt has been testing the waters as a possible third approach for Texas Republicans as Cornyn and Paxton have waged a contentious battle of phrases in the media. Since the spring, Hunt and teams supporting him have spent $6.5 million on promoting in Texas, in accordance to the ad-tracking service AdImpact.
Groups supporting Cornyn, nonetheless, have spent greater than $21 million on tv adverts this 12 months, in accordance AdImpact, to promote the four-term senator and assault Paxton.
In a September memo, Thune and Scott stated that Cornyn had narrowed his deficit with Paxton and that Hunt “continues to cling to the false narrative he pushed as a justification for his own ambitions.”
“There never was, and never will be, a tenable pathway for Hunt,” they stated in the memo. “It’s time for the vanity project that could cost Republicans control of the Senate and dilute our resources to end.”
Hunt argued that it’s Senate Republicans who’re losing on Cornyn sources that could possibly be used in different states to maintain and maybe broaden the bulk.
“This is not a vanity project. This is about giving the people of Texas a viable alternative,” Hunt informed the AP. “Let’s stop the exercise in futility and get the right person for the job.”
Hunt, an Army veteran and US Military Academy graduate, represents a suburban Houston district that he and his supporters argue straddles either side of the Republican divide. To the north, cities comparable to Tomball are heavy Trump nation, whereas to the south, unique communities comparable to River Oaks are dwelling to older, historically monied Republicans in the vein of their onetime neighbor the late President George H.W. Bush.
While Paxton has been a robust supporter of Trump, Hunt has saved shut to the Republican president’s orbit. He was the primary Republican to endorse him after the previous president’s 2022 comeback marketing campaign announcement, and he gave a prime-time speech on opening night time of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. He additionally campaigned 17 occasions for Trump final 12 months, greater than some other Republican surrogate.
Paxton has been shadowed by troubles together with state and federal corruption investigations and a 2023 impeachment trial that uncovered an extramarital affair. Though a state fraud indictment and federal corruption probe had been dropped this 12 months and the impeachment ended in acquittal, Paxton’s spouse, state Sen. Angela Paxton, introduced in July she was filing for divorce “on biblical grounds.”
Paxton aides have stated the questions on him haven’t price him politically.
Cornyn aides and Senate Republican management have stated the advert marketing campaign has minimize into Paxton’s benefit.
It’s unclear how Hunt coming into would issue in Republicans’ effort to maintain their Senate majority in subsequent 12 months’s midterms.
Democrats would wish to internet 4 seats to acquire the Senate majority, and they’ve recruited massive names in North Carolina and Ohio, the place Republicans are defending seats. Another, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills of Maine, has taken steps towards running for that state’s Republican-held seat and is anticipated to announce her plans as early as this month.
Even if these states fall Democrats’ approach, Texas has proved troublesome for the social gathering.
Democrats had been hopeful in 2018 when then-Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke misplaced narrowly to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. In 2024, Cruz beat then-Rep. Colin Allred by a wider margin however fewer than 10 share factors.
Allred introduced in July he was running once more. Texas state Rep. James Talarico introduced final month he was running.
Trump carried Texas by 14 share factors in 2024. Trump has remained impartial in the Texas Senate main.
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