Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) has thrown his hat into the ring to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.

Hunt announced his Senate bid on Oct. 6, saying that “the U.S. Senate race in Texas must be about more than a petty feud between two men who have spent months trading barbs. With my candidacy, this race will finally be about what’s most important—Texas.”

He will be in a fight against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the incumbent, Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican serving a fourth term.

Hunt, a U.S. Military Academy graduate and two-term congressman from the suburban Houston area, said he believes that he can garner votes from the entire breadth of the Republican party due to his track record.

“My record speaks louder than words,” Hunt said in his announcement. “I am the most consistently conservative legislator representing Texas in Congress.”

According to Hunt, his campaign is about defending conservative values and working to ensure that Washington does not dictate what happens in Texas:

“Bureaucrats in D.C. do not choose Texas’s leadership; Texans do. This race will be settled by Texans, not entrenched political figures from inside the beltway,” Hunt said.

Cornyn has held the Senate seat that Hunt hopes to take since 2002, and has been endorsed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is the Senate GOP’s official campaign organization.

Paxton announced on April 8 that he would enter the race for the 2026 Senate primary, saying in a post to X: “It’s official. I’m running for U.S. Senate to fight for President Trump’s agenda and take a sledgehammer to the D.C. establishment.”

Paxton, 62, said on his campaign website that he is a “loyal supporter” of President Donald Trump and “a staunch supporter of the America First movement.”

Paxton is challenging Cornyn on several issues, including the senator’s support for a $95 billion foreign aid package aimed at bolstering support for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

The Texas attorney general has also criticized Cornyn’s support for a bipartisan gun law, called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which passed in 2022 following the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

However, the Texas attorney general has been plagued by several legal challenges, including his impeachment and suspension from office by the Texas House of Representatives due to allegations of felonious conduct related to the use of his office. However, he was later acquitted in a trial by the Texas Senate.

Trump said in April of this year and again in late August that he had not yet decided whether to back Cornyn or Paxton.

“The worst situation I have is when I have two people that I get along with well, and they all want the endorsement,” Trump said from the Oval Office in August. “They’re both friends of mine and they’re both good and very different.”

Hunt appears to be jockeying for the endorsement as well, saying in his press release: “I was the first person in the nation to endorse President Trump, and I have remained steadfast in my commitment to the people of Texas. I listen, I lead, and I deliver.”

Paxton campaign adviser Nick Maddux told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement about Hunt’s entrance into the race: “We welcome Wesley Hunt to the race. Primaries are good for our party and our voters, and Wesley and Attorney General Paxton both know that Texans deserve better than the failed, anti-Trump record of John Cornyn.”

Cornyn’s campaign also released a statement about the new 2026 challenger, with Cornyn campaign senior adviser Matt Mackowiak saying: “Wesley Hunt is a legend in his own mind. No one is happier this morning than the national Democrats who are watching Wesley continue his quixotic quest for relevancy, costing tens of millions of dollars that will endanger the Trump agenda from being passed.”

Hunt ended his emailed press release by saying, “I was born in Texas. I grew up in Texas. My kids were born in Texas. I’m going to die in Texas. I’m running for U.S. Senate to leave Texas better than I found it.”

Aldgra Fredly and Arjun Singh contributed to this report.