With overwhelming GOP majorities in the state legislature and congressional delegation, Texas Republicans have no shortage of up-and-coming political talent.
But as longtime leaders keep seeking reelection to top posts, one ambitious newcomer says the next generation is going to have to stop waiting its turn.
U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Houston), 44, had hoped to succeed Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who’s held one of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats since 2002 and at one point appeared headed toward retirement this election cycle.
Instead Cornyn started rallying for a fifth six-year term to stop embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton from taking his place — causing national party operatives to urge Hunt against jumping into an expensive three-way primary.
Rather than waiting it out in his safe red congressional district, however, Hunt joined the race anyway, and said he hopes other young candidates will follow his lead.
“It is time for this next generation — people in their 30s, 40s, 50s — to realize that we need some turnover,” Hunt said in a recent interview. “People in this country don’t give their best years to this cause, and I’ve realized that it’s time for us to do it now.”
Most polls of the race show Hunt trailing his more well-known opponents, but he says his internal numbers show he could easily best a Democrat in a head-to-head general election. The March 3 primary is almost certain to go to a runoff between the top two vote-takers.
Hunt sat down with the San Antonio Report to talk about bucking party leaders, helping President Donald Trump’s agenda in Washington and what Republicans need to do to keep Texas red.
Texas Republicans have long had big hopes for your future. Some even say they created a congressional district specifically for you during the 2021 redistricting process. But in this U.S. Senate race, national party leaders asked you not to run, suggesting that an expensive, three-way race would complicate their efforts to keep the seat out of Democrats’ hands. Tell us why you’re doing it anyway.
One thing I always tell people is that the United States Congress and the United States Senate are not a retirement community.
This race can’t be about a blood feud between two men. It’s got to be about the people of Texas. It’s got to be about border security. It’s got to be about our overall security. It’s got to be about the oil and gas and energy industry that makes this state — which is the eighth largest economy in the entire world — run. So proper representation for the industries that are most important [to Texas], and the issues that are most germane to Texans, is why I’m running.
Texas has no shortage of up-and-coming Republican political talent, but not a lot of upward mobility, since longtime incumbents keep running for reelection to the state’s highest offices. In fact, Paxton’s move to the U.S. Senate race created the first statewide position without an incumbent on the ballot in more than a decade. Do you think the Republican Party is doing enough to grow its future talent in Texas, or is the next generation of ambitious Republicans going to have to do what you’re doing?
You have to self-select at this point. And by the way, that goes for everyone in this country. A lot of people that have my pedigree and my background don’t get into government, and that’s actually why I’m doing it. This shouldn’t be a default job for people to just get reelected because they can, or because they think this is just a way to sit up in D.C. for the next 20 years to collect a paycheck. I’m somebody that could be doing other things, but I am choosing to do this, and hopefully I can inspire others to do the same.
You first ran for Congress, unsuccessfully, in a left-leaning district against a Democratic incumbent. Then the districts were redrawn and you had tough primaries. Most of our statewide officials haven’t faced real competition in a primary or a general election in recent years. How important is it for statewide candidates to be able to talk to all kinds of voters in Texas?
Keep in mind, President Trump just won Texas by 14 points, so Texas is pretty red at this point. I would argue Texas is pretty pro-Trump. Maybe there are certain pockets of Texas that are not, but that is why we have a constitutional republic and a democracy here. We get to vote for that, and if you don’t like it, you can vote against it, but the majority wins, and the majority of this state wants to see strong border security. The majority of this state wants to see low regulation for the oil and gas industry so we can prosper and flourish. The majority of this state wants to see free and fair elections. The majority of this state doesn’t want to go to a gas station [where] they’re going to get mugged. And if you stand for those things, then the bulk of the state will vote for you, especially if you’re not scandal-ridden.
Since Trump returned to office, here in San Antonio we hear a lot of concern from our local elected officials about federal cuts coming for Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP and other social safety net-type programs. They’re also concerned about losing Army North and Army South in the Trump administration’s branch realignment. As a close ally of the president in D.C., how would you frame his first year back in office to San Antonians?
We’re cutting out Social Security for illegal immigrants, that’s a win for us. … If you’re over 65, nobody’s taking away Social Security. It’s not going to happen. If you are disabled, nobody is taking away your Social Security.
I think reducing government bloat is really important for everybody. We’re running at a $37 trillion deficit. That’s insanity, and we can’t continue to operate like that. I’m one of the few politicians that has three young children, so I’m very concerned about the future of this country.
The greatest existential threat to this country is our national debt. We have to make some very tough decisions. They’re not always going to be popular. People are not going to like them, but I’m a combat veteran. I’m an Apache pilot. I’ve been shot at for a living. So one thing I understand is making tough decisions.
National Democrats are trying to flip a 53-seat Republican majority in the U.S. Senate in 2026 and have their sights set on Texas, mainly because they don’t have many other options — senators serve staggered six-year terms and the GOP incumbents up for reelection this cycle come from really red states.
Meanwhile, national Republicans are defending a large number of seats up in 2026, and think that spending money to help Cornyn will save them from pouring resources into a general election next November. How do you think about this race, in terms of the impact that an incredibly expensive GOP primary is having on the national political landscape?
The reason why I am running for Senate is to make sure that we have the best candidate for Texas in the general election— the candidate that is already winning the general election [in polling] against state Rep. James Talarico (D-Round Rock and former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred (D-Dallas) by 5 percentage points.
It’s important for us to have the right person to keep Texas a red state, because it’s going to be very, very pivotal depending on how other states go throughout the country, especially Maine, North Carolina, Michigan and Georgia.
[National Republicans] cannot afford to continue to spend tens of millions of dollars a month in a Republican primary when we have other states to worry about. That’s why I’m running, so we can stop hemorrhaging money, get a good candidate that can already win, so then we can take care of business in these other states.
National Republicans have been pouring money into GOP Senate primaries for several cycles now to help candidates they believe will be able to keep the seat in six years when they’re up for reelection, particularly in states that are changing. Do you think that you have that kind of broad appeal, if this state’s politics look different in six years?
That’s why I’m perfect for the job. I’m like 20 years below the average age in the Senate, which gives a lot of appeal to a lot of people. One in 3 Black men in the state of Texas voted for President Trump. If we could keep those numbers where they’re at, with a candidate like me, well then I think we’ll be good for now and for the next six years.
A lot of money is being spent to help Cornyn and Paxton, but you also received help from outside groups that spent roughly $6.5 million on your behalf before you’d even joined the race. Who is putting in that money and why?
I won’t tell you who they are, but they’re really smart, I’ll tell you that much. The most difficult thing to do, especially being a House member, is to run statewide, because your name ID is very good in the district that you live in, but Texas is massive.
Most people don’t know who you are outside of the district that you run in, so we have some friends that really believed in us, that were able to help us out, as a way to build my name ID without officially getting in the race.
That way if we got to a point where we realized that a 24-year incumbent was polling at 33% after spending $30 million, and it’s time for an alternative, then we’ve set ourselves up. So that if we get to [a point where] the White House looks at and it goes, well, who are the top guys? Well, it’s me, Ken Paxton and John Cornyn, because we worked for the past nine months to raise my name ID.