Unofficial election night totals give Hunt 56 percent with oil and gas engineer and former State Republican Executive Committee member Mark Ramsey trailing in second place at 30 percent in the 10-way contest.
Shortly after the posting of the early vote and counted mail ballot results, the Hunt campaign declared victory.
“I am incredibly honored and grateful to the Republican voters of Texas’ 38th Congressional district for giving me the opportunity to be the Republican nominee in the General Election.,” said Hunt in a statement.
“The support our campaign has received since July has been overwhelming, and I cannot thank everyone enough for dedicating their time and resources to this cause. I am elated to accept the nomination for Texas’ new 38th Congressional district.”
A U.S. Army veteran who has worked for Perry Homes in Texas, Hunt had amassed a fundraising haul of $3 million and touted high-profile endorsements from former President Donald Trump, former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX-02).
One of two new districts Texas gained in 2022, the 38th Congressional District stretches from the west side of Houston and the Energy Corridor northward through Harris County to include portions of Jersey Village, Cypress, and Tomball, and carries a R-63% rating from The Texan’s Texas Partisan Index. Portions of the new district were pulled from Texas Congressional District 7 where Hunt had lost by only 3 percentage points to Democrat Rep. Lizzie Fletcher in 2020.
Prior to election night, Hunt and Ramsey sparred over endorsements and residency in the district, with Ramsey noting that Hunt lived outside of the newly drawn boundaries.
After Hunt refused to meet with the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle, the legacy newspaper reluctantly endorsed him anyway, but the West Point graduate quipped that he saw no reason for Republicans to seek endorsements from a newspaper that had been “unfair, inequitable, and brutally dishonest about Conservatives.”
Hunt will face the winner of the Democratic primary, which is likely headed to a runoff between Diana Martina Alexander and Duncan Klussman, but is predicted to easily win the heavily Republican district in November.
Although Hunt seems poised to win, Harris County elections notified the Texas Secretary of State Tuesday that the county’s elections department would be unable to count and report results by the statutory deadline of 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 2 due to damaged ballot sheets.
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Holly Hansen
Holly Hansen is a reporter for The Texan living in Harris County. Her former column, “All In Perspective” ran in The Georgetown Advocate, Jarrell Star Ledger, and The Hill Country News, and she has contributed to a variety of Texas digital media outlets. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Central Florida with a degree in History, and in addition to writing about politics and policy, also writes about faith and culture.
