DALLAS (AP) — Texas U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt's rivals have increased their attacks on the two-term Republican ahead of Tuesday’s GOP primary for U.S. Senate. It's a sign, he says, that they see him as a threat.
“As an Apache helicopter pilot, it means I must be right over the target zone,” the Iraq War veteran told about 50 people during a recent event at Dallas GOP headquarters.
Hunt was a late entry to what was a head-to-head GOP contest between four-term
Republican Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton. For much of the race, he has been seen as the trailing candidate who would prevent any candidate from winning the race outright, forcing a May runoff.
In recent weeks, both Cornyn and Paxton have been spending more heavily on ads criticizing Hunt, suggesting the two better-known, statewide elected officials see him as complicating their paths to the nomination.
More than anything, the late development punctuates Cornyn’s vulnerable predicament as he tries to avoid being the first Republican senator in Texas history to lose a renomination bid.
If no candidate receives at least 50 percent of the vote on Tuesday, the nomination will be decided by a May 26 runoff election of the top two finishers.
Cornyn, who has said he expects to be in a runoff with Paxton, must keep Hunt from surging past him in the primary’s final days. Meanwhile Paxton could make a run at reaching 50% and winning the nomination outright by dampening support for Hunt, the other Cornyn alternative.
“I think it suggests Paxton thinks he might be able to get to 50 percent, and that Hunt is polling too close,” said Wayne Hamilton, a Republican strategist unaffiliated with any of the Senate candidates and an adviser to Gov. Greg Abbott. “And Cornyn may be seeing Hunt ticking up too close.”
Hunt, who represents Houston’s northwest suburbs, says he's more than just a spoiler, and can be the nominee.
“I was told this was going to be a vanity project and that I didn’t have a chance,” Hunt told reporters after his Dallas event. “If that were the case, then why are they spending all this money attacking me?”
Cornyn's campaign and allied super PACs have been airing ads criticizing Hunt, including one noting that he voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. Hunt has said he voted for Clinton as part of a conservative-led effort to help GOP nominee John McCain by complicating the prolonged 2008 Democratic nominating campaign, won by Barack Obama.
But Hunt has hardly been the primary focus of Cornyn and his supporters, which include Senate Republican leaders. Of the more than $63 million Cornyn and his allies have spent on TV, most of the attacks have been aimed at Paxton, according to the ad-tracking service AdImpact.
A super PAC supporting Paxton also began airing ads critiquing Hunt this month, notably for his absences from the House as he has been campaigning around Texas as the least-known of the three candidates.
Hunt has portrayed himself as the most devoted to the president, though none of the three have received Trump's endorsement. He was an early endorser of Trump's 2024 campaign and appeared regularly as a surrogate for his comeback campaign two years ago.
Hunt entered the race in October seeing an opportunity against Cornyn, a former state Supreme Court judge who has fallen out of favor with a segment of the Republican primary electorate due in part to his dismissal of Trump’s 2024 candidacy early on in his bid. Trump went on to carry Texas by almost 14 percentage points.
Cornyn also became a target of conservatives because he supported a gun-control measure after the 2022 deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
“I would never vote for Cornyn,” said Bob Burns, a 74-year-old retired manufacturing executive from Dallas who attended Hunt’s appearance at the GOP office. He described the incumbent as out of step with today’s GOP.
Burns said he will vote for Hunt because he's “new” and “can carry on Trump’s good work.” He also likes Hunt’s support for a two-term limit for U.S. senators.
Hunt especially saw an opening as an alternative to Paxton, who Senate Republican campaign leaders in Washington have worried would cost many millions more to defend in a general election campaign. Paxton has faced a failed 2023 impeachment trial and accusations of extramarital affairs.
Hunt, 44, reflects a next-generation look for Texas Republicans choosing between him, Cornyn, who is 74 and been in the Senate since 2003, and Paxton, who is 63 and been attorney general since 2015.
In the end, some Texas Republicans say Hunt may have only prolonged an already long and bitter primary campaign by forcing the runoff, perhaps without him.
“The biggest thing that’s happened in the race is Hunt’s getting in," said Tyler Norris, a Texas Republican strategist unaffiliated with any of the Senate candidates. “But, so far, his major contribution is to guarantee a runoff where Paxton and Cornyn will spend tens of millions more to attack each other.”
