The Blast - July 14, 2025

1 day until the TEC and FEC filing deadlines
7 days until the first special session

IN TODAY’S BLAST

• Hunt makes a big ad buy as he weighs joining Senate primary

• Toth vs. Crenshaw

• Court smacks down attempt to reopen testimony on Texas maps

• Veasey wants Epstein files released

HUNT MAKES A BIG AD BUY AS HE WEIGHS JOINING SENATE PRIMARY

As U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt considers jumping into the messy primary field for the U.S. Senate, his team has made a six-figure ad buy on the conservative cable news channel Newsmax, according to a person familiar with the push.

The Houston Republican raised $1.1 million for his campaign account in the past three months, leaving him with $3 million that he can use either to seek reelection to his safe House seat or plunge into the statewide Senate race.

Hunt’s latest spot — which is targeting the Dallas, San Antonio and Houston areas this week — appears to be an effort to raise his name recognition in areas outside the slice of west and northwest Harris County he represents, laying the groundwork for a possible statewide run against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton. The ad comes just after Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, filed for divorce and alleged that her husband had committed adultery — a development that threatens to disrupt Ken Paxton’s Senate bid.

The 60-second spot opens with a clip of President Donald Trump calling Hunt “a man with an unlimited future” before going on the offensive against Democrats’ “radicalism.” The narrator also walks through Hunt’s military background, including his time at West Point and in the armed forces, and shows portions of his prime-time speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Cornyn is currently trailing Paxton in multiple polls by over 15 points, but is widely seen as the more viable candidate in the general election. Meanwhile, Paxton’s primary favorability and numerous scandals are enticing Texas Democrats who see him as the opponent that gives them the best chance of flipping Texas blue.

A Hunt candidacy could disrupt these dynamics and provide primary voters with a third option come March 3.

Last week, Hunt was the only House member who traveled from Washington to Texas on Air Force One with Trump, and he has continually emphasized his close alliance and ties with the president.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is using its deep campaign war chest to back incumbent Cornyn. They have also been quietly asking big-dollar donors to hold off on contributions to eager House lawmakers who are looking to jump into the Senate race, potentially complicating Hunt’s prospects.

— Owen Dahlkamp

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TOTH VS. CRENSHAW

Hardline conservative state Rep. Steve Toth is expected to announce his primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw tomorrow for Texas’ 2nd Congressional District, setting the stage for another marquee congressional primary in the Lone Star State.

The Conroe Republican would be Crenshaw’s most serious challenger since he took office in 2019.

Crenshaw blew former Houston state Rep. Kevin Roberts out of the water in the 2018 primary after securing a runoff slot by only 155 votes. Crenshaw then won the general election by 7 points, becoming the successor to then-U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble.

However, Crenshaw’s district was drawn to be about 10 points more Republican in the last redistricting cycle, meaning any serious competition would have to come in the GOP primary.

He drew three primary challengers in 2022 as he faced questions about party loyalty. The race garnered some attention, but Crenshaw still won with 74.5% of the vote, avoiding a runoff. Returning challenger Jameson Ellis lost his head-to-head contest 59.5%-40.5% last year, never coming close to raising the money to be a serious threat. Yet, the critics calling Crenshaw a RINO haven’t gotten any quieter.

Unlike his predecessors, Toth has more fundraising experience than any of Crenshaw’s past challengers. He’s received more than $95,000 in contributions from Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks’ universe over the years and has $113,000 cash on hand in his state campaign account, although he’s limited in how he can transfer that to his federal account.

Should Toth not run for reelection, look for former congressional candidate Christian Collins to run for Toth’s seat. Collins, the founder of the conservative Texas Youth Summit, could be Toth’s favored candidate in that race. He previously ran for Texas’ 8th Congressional District in 2022, finishing a distant second to now-Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Magnolia, in the race to succeed the retiring Kevin Brady. Collins emerged as the House Freedom Caucus’ chosen candidate and pitched himself as an anti-establishment outsider, carving out the far-right lane in the crowded primary.

COURT SMACKS DOWN ATTEMPT TO REOPEN TESTIMONY ON TEXAS MAPS

Texas’ most recent voting maps were drawn with one goal in mind: ensuring the state can help “truly Make America Great Again.” 

Or, at least, that’s Attorney General Ken Paxton’s take on the freshly contested issue of if and how Texas relied on race to draw its voting maps. Last week, officials with the Trump administration informed Texas that four of its congressional districts were illegally drawn based on race; Gov. Greg Abbott directed lawmakers to take a second look “in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.”

This comes just weeks after a month-long trial concluded in which the state repeatedly insisted that the maps were not drawn based on race. Lawyers for the plaintiffs in that suit have asked the three-judge panel to call witnesses back to El Paso to grill them on this inconsistency. In a response to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon on Friday, Paxton doubled down, saying Texas “has led the Nation in rejecting race-based decision-making in its redistricting process.” 

In a court filing, Paxton’s office argued that adding redistricting to the special session call was not the same as agreeing with the DOJ that the maps were drawn based on race, and pointed to the political reasons the state might want to take another crack at the maps (including, Paxton said in his letter, “Texas’ historic support for President Trump in the 2024 Presidential Election.”)

“The Presidential Administration wants to bolster a partisan advantage in upcoming elections and felt that the Texas Legislature had not been partisan enough in 2021,” the filing says. “Seeking partisan advantage does not violate the Constitution and does not impugn the motives of the 2021 map drawers.”

The judges agreed, saying it was not necessary to “force two out-of-town-judges, three out-of-town witnesses and a gaggle of attorneys” back into court to take new testimony. If the state passes new maps, they said, then they’d hear arguments on that; if not, “which is entirely possible given the complexity of redistricting, the sheer number of items on the legislative agenda and the fact that the special session can’t exceed 30 days,” the case will pick up where they left off.  

Texas’ Republican delegation in Congress has been anxious about the prospect of overextending their advantage, especially as California threatens a retaliatory redistricting effort. The special session starts July 21. 

— Eleanor Klibanoff

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VEASEY WANTS EPSTEIN FILES RELEASED

As MAGA-world fractures over the Epstein files, one Texas Democrat in Congress is trying to take advantage of the breakdown.

Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, announced he plans to introduce a resolution demanding the Trump administration release the Epstein files in full. 

Trump and his Department of Justice have come under fire from supporters over a DOJ memo stating that the department had not found evidence of a list of powerful clients kept by Jeffrey Epstein, the high-profile financier at the center of a sex trafficking ring.

Trump allies — including Vice President JD Vance — had raised questions about Epstein’s death in prison in the past, and Epstein theorists were excited by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s February announcement that she planned to release the client list.

Veasey is one of several Democrats hoping to force Republicans to pick between loyalty to Trump or the MAGA base through legislative action. 

“Either [Trump] and his acolytes fueled the rumors of the significance of these Epstein files to help his campaign, or something is there!” Veasey wrote on X, with screenshots of President Donald Trump recently telling supporters on Truth Social to move on from theorizing about Epstein. “Put up or shut up!”

— Gabby Birenbaum

Today’s actions:

• Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick named the members of the Senate Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding, which will be chaired by Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock. Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, will be vice chair of the nine-member panel, which will be made up of seven Republicans and two Democrats.

• Patrick also announced that the panel’s first hearing will take place at the Texas Capitol on July 23, the third day of the special session. The second hearing is scheduled for July 31 in Kerrville.

This week:

• The House Natural Resources Committee will meet at 1 p.m. on Tuesday to hear invited testimony about groundwater production in the Neches and Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District.

View the full list of upcoming committee notices here and here.

• A poll from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Republicans’ campaign finance arm for U.S. Senate races, shows U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett leading a hypothetical Democratic primary field at 35%. Former Rep. Colin Allred, who has declared his candidacy, trailed at 20%. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke came in second at 13%, tying with Rep. Joaquin Castro.

• Aliza Dutt, a Republican candidate for Harris County judge, has raised $250,000 in the first 41 days of her campaign, an impressive showing. The county executive position is held by Democrat Lina Hidalgo, who has yet to announce whether she will seek reelection in 2026.

• Ready to Work PAC, which previously served as the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s leadership PAC, donated $2,000 to Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, according to campaign finance filings. Menefee is running to replace Rep. Sylvester Turner, Jackson Lee’s successor, who died in March. Jackson Lee’s family has yet to make a public endorsement.

“Mental health programs could bear the brunt of $600M federal cuts to Texas schools” by Stephen Simpson of The Texas Tribune

“Why Greg Abbott refuses to release his emails with Elon Musk” by Lauren McGaughy of The Texas Newsroom

“Floods put Abbott, a disaster veteran, at crossroads of Trump’s FEMA rebrand” by Matthew Choi, Patrick Svitek and Brianna Sacks of The Washington Post

“The Texas Senate race is turning into an absolute mess” by Daniella Diaz and Ursula Perano of NOTUS

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