Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt runs for the US Senate in Texas, opposes the Senate GOP leadership, adding new elements to the already controversial major campaign.
A two-term Houston area lawmaker said he’s running because he thinks that Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican incumbent who has a cool relationship with President Donald Trump, can beat Attorney General Ken Paxton. Legal and personal issues.
“What I’ve seen in the poll over the past few months is that people want alternatives. I’m going to give it to them,” Hunt said in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday.
Senate Republican leaders are worried A question hugging Paxton, who took part in the race in April, said that despite Texas’ Republican Lean, the general election would cost millions of dollars.
But Sen. Tim Scott, including South Dakota Senate Majority Leader John Tune and South Carolina Senator Senate President, have publicly chide Hunt, which has been measuring the Senate campaign since April.
Hunt is testing water As a potential third way for the Texas Republican, as Cornin and Paxton are unfolding. A controversial battle of media words. Since the spring, the group supporting him has spent $6.5 million on advertising in Texas, according to ad tracking service Adimpact.
Groups that support CornynHowever, Adimpact said this year, he spent more than $21 million on television ads, promoting four-term senators and attack Paxton.
In a note in September, Thune and Scott said Cornyn narrowed his deficit with Paxton and continued to cling to the false narrative that the hunt “has continued to stick to as a justification for his own ambitions.”
“There was no sustainable route for hunting, and never was,” they said in the memo. “It’s time for a vanity project where Republicans can sacrifice their Senate control and dilute our resources and end it.”
Hunt argued that it is Senate Republicans who are wasting Cornyn’s resources that can be used in other states and possibly to expand the majority.
“This is not a vanity project. It’s about giving Texans a viable alternative,” Hunt told the Associated Press. “Stop the useless exercise and get the right person for the job.”
A veteran of the Army and a graduate of the US Army Academy, Hunt represents the suburban Houston area where he and his supporters claim to span both sides of the Republican disparity. To the north, cities such as Tomball are heavy Trump countries, and in the south, exclusive communities such as the Oaks River are home to older, traditionally harmed Republicans in the vein of their late neighbor, the late President George H.W. Bush’s neighbour.
Paxton was a strong supporter of Trump, but Hunt is approaching the trajectory of a Republican president. He was the first Republican to support him after the announcement of the former president’s 2022 comeback campaign, and he gave Prime Time Speech The opening night of the 2024 Republican National Convention held in Milwaukee. He also campaigned 17 times for Trump last year over other Republican agents.
Paxton is hidden in troubles including state and federal corruption investigations 2023 Mergers Trial It exposed an extramarital affair. The state’s fraud accusations and federal corruption investigation investigation investigations were removed this year, and the perch ended with an acquittal, but Sen. Angela Paxton, Paxton’s wife, announced in July. Application for divorce “On the basis of the Bible.”
Paxton Aides says questions about him have not paid a political sacrifice to him.
Cornyn Aides and Senate Republican leaders say the ad campaign has been reduced to Paxton’s benefits.
It is unclear how Hunt will consider the efforts of Republicans to retain their Senate majority in the middle of next year.
Democrats need to win four seats to win a Senate majority, and they We have recruited big names in North Carolina and Ohiowhere Republicans are guarding their seats. Another Democratic government in Maine, Janet Mills, has taken steps to run towards the state’s Republican-owned seat, and is set to announce her plans as early as this month.
Even if these states fall in the Democratic way, Texas has proven difficult for the party.
Democrats were hopeful in 2018 when then-Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke was narrowly defeated by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. In 2024, Cruz defeated the rep of the time. Choline is given entirely at a wider margin, but less than 10% points.
Allred was announced in July He was running again. Texas Rep. James Tarico announced Last month he was running.
Trump carried Texas 14 percent points in 2024. Trump remained neutral in the Texas Senate primary.
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Beaumont was reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
