The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is urging Rep. Wesley Hunt (R) and his supporters to abandon any plans for a Senate run and throw their full support behind incumbent Senator John Cornyn (R).
In a memo released this week, the NRSC said that the Republican primary race between Senator Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has become a close contest, citing recent polling averages showing the two candidates locked in a statistical dead heat. According to the memo, Senator Cornyn trailed Attorney General Paxton by 17 points.
NRSC officials credit Senator Cornyn’s campaign, along with efforts from the NRSC, the Senate leadership Fund, and allied political action committees, for helping bolster the incumbent senator’s campaign.
The NRSC accused Rep. Hunt of inflating earlier polls to justify a potential run, calling his efforts “a vanity project” that risks draining donor resources. The Texas congressman and his supporters, according to the memo, have already spent nearly $5 million “to prop him up” without gaining traction.
The NRSC believes that Republicans must now focus on re-electing Senator Cornyn.
“There never was, and never will be, a tenable pathway for Hunt,” the memo reads.
Rep. Hunt has not formally announced his intention to run for the Senate, and his entry would change the dynamic given that President Donald Trump (R) has not endorsed either Senator Cornyn or Attorney General Paxton. Given that Rep. Hunt has been a strong ally of the president, an endorsement could boost his chances of taking the seat from the incumbent senator.
Despite this, the NRSC is ready to move on from “Paxton’s personal affairs spiraling out of control,” urging Rep. Hunt to endorse Senator Cornyn “to protect his seat.”
Instead, they believe that Rep. Hunt should “help President Trump win the five additional seats in Texas that are critical to maintaining the Republican majority in the U.S. House.”
