{"id":60051,"date":"2025-07-12T16:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T16:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/60051\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T16:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T16:56:11","slug":"houston-congressman-wesley-hunt-tests-u-s-senate-campaign-waters-with-new-ads-in-dallas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/60051\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston congressman Wesley Hunt tests U.S. Senate campaign waters with new ads in Dallas"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt<\/a> will start running new cable TV campaign ads in the Dallas market Saturday, an indication the Houston-area Republican could be edging closer to a bid for the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

The ads will help introduce the congressman to voters outside of his home district, and will also run in the Houston and San Antonio markets.<\/p>\n

Hunt has acknowledged an interest in the U.S. Senate seat held since 2002 by fellow Republican John Cornyn<\/a>, but has yet to make a final decision.<\/p>\n

Cornyn, up for reelection in 2026, already faces a primary challenge<\/a> from Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a>. Polls have shown Paxton leading the race, in some cases by a substantial margin.<\/p>\n

Political Points<\/p>\n

Get the latest politics news from North Texas and beyond.<\/p>\n

Cornyn has said repeatedly it\u2019s early in the campaign and he\u2019s the only one who can beat Paxton in the primary and keep the seat in Republican hands by winning the general election.<\/p>\n

He has rejected suggestions Paxton\u2019s lead in the polls would ever prompt him to step aside<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Cornyn fails to close the gap with Paxton in the weeks and months ahead, however, other Republicans concerned about Paxton\u2019s general election prospects could look for an alternative.<\/p>\n

Hunt has been positioning himself to fill that role, as evidenced by the new ad campaign. Hunt is an ally of President Donald Trump, who holds significant sway among the Texas conservative base.<\/p>\n

Hunt joined Cornyn and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, aboard Air Force One on Friday as the president flew to Texas to survey damage<\/a> from the recent Hill Country flooding.<\/p>\n

The Hunt ad features a sound bite of Trump calling Hunt a \u201cman with an unlimited future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ad attacks Democrats as radicals and features the \u201crising star\u201d Hunt talking up his family\u2019s history and military background.<\/p>\n

Hunt flew Apache helicopters in the Army.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the great, great grandson of a slave. I\u2019m the son of a retired lieutenant colonel,\u201d Hunt says in the ad. \u201cI\u2019m the product of West Point, along with my other two siblings, and I risked my life in combat to preserve our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ads were paid for by Hunt\u2019s congressional campaign.<\/p>\n

Paxton has sought to position himself as the most Trump-aligned candidate in the race and attacked Cornyn as being insufficiently committed to the president and conservative principles.<\/p>\n

Paxton said Friday his campaign had raised $2.9 million during the second quarter, which ended June 30.<\/p>\n

Cornyn has cited a voting record that closely matches Trump and highlighted what he characterizes as failures of character by Paxton, who was impeached by the Texas House in May 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paxton faced allegations of bribery, corruption and other wrongdoings in connection to his dealings with Austin businessman Nate Paul<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paxton denied any wrongdoing and called the proceedings a sham. The Senate acquitted him.<\/p>\n

Paxton\u2019s Senate campaign faces fresh complications this week after his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ken Paxton responded with a post on X asking for prayers and privacy.<\/p>\n

While Paxton has been leading in primary polling, he could face challenges in the general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad always taught us leadership is not about when it\u2019s convenient for you,\u201d Hunt says in the new ad. \u201cIt\u2019s about when your country needs you. Our country needs us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt will start running new cable TV campaign ads in the Dallas market…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":60052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,327,1596,25227,18880,80,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-60051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-congress","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-john-cornyn","12":"tag-ken-paxton","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114841320341861234","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}