In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Hunt — who is seeking to unseat Cornyn in the Texas Republican primary — fired back after Cornyn’s campaign launched a digital ad on Thursday labeling him “fake MAGA,” a five-figure digital buy the congressman said only confirms “we’re clearly winning.”
“The reason they’re behaving this way is because the polling is swinging in our direction,” Hunt charged. “I love that they’ve gone negative — it shows how desperate they are.”
He mocked Cornyn’s line of attack as “laughable,” citing his record of loyalty to President Trump. “Of all people to call me ‘fake MAGA,’” Hunt said, “I’m the guy who traveled with President Trump, campaigned for him, and opened rallies while Cornyn sat it out. I was the first person in the country to endorse President Trump. I’ve been a MAGA warrior from day one.”
Hunt — who delivered a prime-time address on opening night of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and campaigned alongside Trump numerous times last year — contrasted his record with Cornyn’s. “This is the same guy who said it was time to move on from President Trump,” Hunt said. “He’s been anti-Trump from the first election until now — and now he’s calling me ‘fake MAGA’? Texans can smell the fear.”
Continuing his critique, Hunt argued that Cornyn’s decades in Washington have left him out of touch with the movement he once claimed to represent. “John Cornyn has been in the Senate for twenty-four years,” Hunt said. “He’s never met an amnesty bill he didn’t like. He’s the one who called President Trump’s border wall ‘arcane.’ He’s the one who said it was time to move on from President Trump. The party has clearly left him, but he hasn’t moved with it. This is what happens when we have dinosaurs sitting in the halls of the Senate.”
Hunt, a West Point graduate and former Army officer who served multiple combat tours before entering Congress, then cast his bid as a generational shift in the GOP, saying Texans deserve a senator who will “step into the breach” for the next era of America First leadership. “It takes someone in his prime — in his early 40s — to guide this country for the future,” he said. “President Trump needs America-First warriors for the next few decades, and that’s exactly what I plan to be.”
He added that his campaign is about substance, not grudges. “This race can’t just be a blood feud between Ken Paxton and John Cornyn,” Hunt said, referencing his fellow Republican contender and current attorney general. “It has to be about the issues that matter most to Texas — and the fact that Cornyn has spent thirty million dollars and is still polling poorly just tells me voters are ready to see him go. We’re giving Texas primary voters a serious option.”
Hunt said one of the core contrasts between his campaign and Cornyn’s is foreign policy — particularly Ukraine and the use of taxpayer dollars abroad. He charged that Cornyn has “never seen a Ukraine spending bill he didn’t love,” noting the longtime senator “was in Ukraine earlier this year kissing up to Zelensky.” Hunt said he has never voted for more Ukraine spending and argued that taxpayer dollars should be used “to solve America’s problems, not bankroll endless wars and quagmires overseas.” Washington’s fixation on funding foreign conflicts while neglecting problems at home, he added, is “exactly why Americans are fed up” — a point he linked to the current government shutdown.
Hunt dismissed the shutdown as “pure political theater,” blaming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for caving to pressure from the far-left. “They signed on to two continuing resolutions this year — this one is only twenty-five pages and just keeps the government funded at the same level — but Schumer refused to move it because he’s scared of a primary from AOC,” Hunt said. “So now people are suffering and the entire government is shut down because they’re playing political football.”
He stressed that House Republicans had already done their part. “We did our job in the House. President Trump clearly wants to open the government again,” he said, adding that Democrats in the Senate “have the votes but refuse to act.”
Hunt argued the standoff has exposed how bloated the federal bureaucracy has become.
“What’s really great about this is we’re finding out which jobs are essential and which aren’t,” he said. “The military is clearly essential — that’s why President Trump signed an executive order to make sure our troops continue to get paid. And who tried to block that? Chuck Schumer. So apparently Chuck Schumer thinks our military isn’t essential. Okay — cool story.”
He added that the shutdown could ultimately help shrink government. “A lot of furloughed workers aren’t going to come back because their jobs aren’t essential,” Hunt said. “Taxpayers want less government. They want the people doing a good job to stay. The ones we don’t need should go.”
Hunt argued that Schumer’s obstruction is part of a larger pattern within today’s Democratic Party — a party, he said, “held hostage by its radical wing.” The same pressure forcing Schumer’s shutdown brinkmanship, he added, is driving Democrats further left nationwide, from Washington to New York.
“Democrats are flailing,” Hunt said. “Democrats are stuck on stupid.”
He compared the current wave of “No Kings” protests to the earlier pro-Hamas demonstrations that spread across American campuses last year. “First it was the pro-Hamas protests, and now they’ve just changed their costumes — now they’re the ‘No Kings’ people,” he said.
Hunt said the left’s turn to chaos and violence was proof of its ideological collapse. “Now they’re flailing again, and they have nowhere to go except violence,” he said. “It’s sad to see these people call us fascists and Hitler when we’re the ones who truly care about the direction of this country.”
He contrasted that disorder with what he described as President Trump’s record of restoring peace and stability abroad. “After President Trump solved the issue in the Middle East with the recent hostage release and cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, we have peace in the Middle East yet again — a second time during the Trump administration, just like the first,” Hunt said.
“President Trump and the America First movement are about exactly that — putting the American citizen first,” Hunt continued. “Democrats hate that because they’re losing, and they’ll keep losing. They have no message, nowhere to go, and no leadership. We’ve consolidated around President Trump and the America First movement, and we’ve become impenetrable.”
He warned that the left’s increasing extremism poses a real danger. “Now they’re trying to find ways to catch us with our guard down, resorting to nefarious tactics that are wrong and bad for this country,” he said. “It just shows we’re on the right side of history — and the right side of the American people who want to see us prosper. We’re going to keep standing for our rights — free speech, the First Amendment, the Second Amendment — in spite of the violence.”
Hunt said the same hard-left pull warping Democrats in Washington is now on full display in New York. He pointed to the city’s mayoral race and the rise of socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani as “proof the party’s gone off the cliff.”
“They’re going to find out the hard way,” Hunt said. “If Democrats keep going in that direction, they’ll keep losing nationally. I hate to see a self-proclaimed socialist win, but sometimes people need more pain to learn.”
He warned Mamdani’s agenda would be devastating. “He’s going to destroy that city,” Hunt argued. “Hopefully they’ll then learn a lesson and elect someone more conservative when they realize those policies don’t work. Sometimes you have to feel that pain before you make progress.”
For Hunt, the contrast heading into 2026 is stark. “If they go with Mamdani, AOC, Bernie Sanders, and ‘Pocahontas’ Elizabeth Warren, they’ll keep losing elections,” he said. “We saw it this past cycle with President Trump — and we’ll see it again. For our sake, I hope they keep it up, because it means more winning for us and a better future for the American people.”
Hunt framed his campaign as part of a broader realignment within the Republican Party. “This is about the future of our movement,” he concluded. “Texans know what’s at stake, and together we’re going to send a message — the America First era is just getting started.”
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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