Rep. Wesley Hunt, Proud of American Heritage, Descended from Slavery

Two congressional lawmakers who are descendants of enslaved peoples offered disparate opinions of America on Independence Day, illustrating the chasm between the right and the left about the nation’s principles.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) recognized the holiday on Twitter.

“The Declaration of Independence was written by enslavers and didn’t recognize Black people as human,” Ms. Bush wrote in a tweet. “Today is a great day to demand Reparations Now.”

Included in the tweet was the emoji of the “raised fist,” a symbol of solidarity among socialist revolutionaries and their causes, and a signature gesture of the Black Power movement.

Ms. Bush told ABC News in May that she is one of the estimated 40 million people in the United States who are descended from enslaved people brought to the United States from Africa. She introduced a bill to provide a minimum of $14 trillion in reparations to black Americans.

Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), a first-term member of Congress, also has ancestors who were enslaved in the United States. But he marked the Fourth of July differently.

American Pride

Mr. Hunt took part in an Independence Day parade in his district in Bunker Hill Village, Texas, a city of about 4,000 residents. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and an Army combat veteran, Hunt rode along the parade route in a military Humvee accompanied by his two daughters, Olivia, 6, and Victoria, 2.

“It’s always been my favorite holiday, because it is the birthday of the greatest nation in the entire world,” Mr. Hunt told The Epoch Times. “And not only do I want to celebrate July 4, but I want to celebrate the entire month as America Pride Month.

“My team and I have drafted legislation to make July ‘America Pride Month.’ I think we should have a month dedicated to the greatest nation,” he said.

Mr. Hunt’s wife, Emily, is a pediatric nurse practitioner. She also attended the parade with their 6-month-old son, Willie. The Hunts have been married for five years.

Mr. Hunt represents Texas’ 38th Congressional District, newly formed in 2022 and solidly Republican. The district covers parts of Houston and the city’s suburbs. In the nine-person Republican primary, Mr. Hunt won 55 percent of the vote. In the general election, he beat Democrat Duncan Klussmann, 63 percent to 35 percent.

Victory in the 2022 race represented a quick turnaround and a redemption for Mr. Hunt who, two years earlier, lost his first election bid in a run for Texas’ 7th Congressional District. Mr. Hunt won 61 percent of the vote in a six-person primary but lost in the general election to Democrat incumbent Rep. Lizzie Fletcher.

Mr. Hunt is a staunch conservative. He supports protecting the border, the Second Amendment, being pro-life, promoting fiscal responsibility, and is pro-Israel.

He is also an enthusiastic supporter of former President Donald Trump.

“President Trump right now is up by at least 30 points everywhere. People need to understand that he’s the guy,” Mr. Hunt said. “Where we, the nation, are right now, we need record economic growth—we need that growth from 2024 through 2028 if we are going to save this country, and the only person who can get that done as president is Donald Trump.”

Family Legacy

Mr. Hunt’s great-great grandfather and great-great grandmother were held in bondage as slaves at Rosedown Plantation in Saint Francisville, Louisiana. The plantation has been preserved and is an official state historic site open to the public.

Mr. Hunt does not shy away from this family background. In fact, he emphasizes this aspect of the legacy of which he is a part.

He is no cheerleader for affirmative action or race-based diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. He says he is not a victim and is not looking for any special treatment.

DEI policies are being rolled back across the country, most notably with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling against affirmative action, stating that it is unconstitutional for colleges and universities to factor in race when making decisions on who is admitted to their student bodies.

Bills to dismantle or weaken DEI in colleges and universities have been filed in 23 states. Governors in Florida, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas have signed anti-DEI bills into law.

Mr. Hunt grew up in Houston. He credits his parents, who still live in the Houston area, with raising him with the right values and the right priorities, and he said they remain active in the community and fully support their son’s political efforts. Mr. Hunt’s father served 23 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.

The Hunts were devoutly religious Baptists who attended church two to three times a week.

Mr. Hunt has two siblings who are also West Point graduates.

His sister, D’Hania Hunt, is 10 years older than him and served 23 years in the military. His brother, Wrendon Hunt, graduated from the academy a year after Mr. Hunt and went on to serve five years in the U.S. Navy.

During a stretch in 2006, all the siblings were deployed at the same time to a war region, with Wesley Hunt piloting combat missions over Baghdad, D’Hania Hunt serving as a military intelligence officer in the Green Zone in Iraq, and Wrendon Hunt stationed aboard a destroyer in the Persian Gulf.

Understanding History

“Our parents were influential in making sure that we understood our history and where we’ve came from,” said Mr. Hunt. “And they were always big on talking about the past so we could talk about how far we’ve come in a very short period of time, and to talk about the progression from slavery to my dad becoming a lieutenant colonel.

“My father, who just turned 74, grew up in Louisiana during a period of segregation. He never had a single class with a white person, kindergarten through college.

“My parents told us that we can’t talk about where we are right now if we don’t know our history. And if we don’t have that perspective, then it’s very easy to get caught up in making yourself the victim instead of looking at and understanding all the progress that we have made.”

Mr. Hunt said his family didn’t talk politics at home when he was growing up.

“You know, and this is interesting, growing up, I actually didn’t know how my parents voted or whom they voted for,” he said. “I think it was a kind of carry-over rule for my father. In the military, you’re kind of just apolitical.

“And for whatever reason, growing up into my adolescent years and going through high school, it was just never a thing for us to talk politics in the house.”

Mr. Hunt graduated from St. John’s School, a prestigious and highly competitive independent school in Houston.

He remembers the lessons and classes that dealt with episodes of injustice and brutality, including the stain of slavery, in American history.

“I will admit that it kind of felt a little uncomfortable sometimes. A classmate might say something like, ‘Wes, that must have been bad to know what happened in your past, and what happened to black people was bad.’ And I’m the guy that was saying ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that was like a few hundred years ago. That doesn’t apply to me right now because we’ve come a long way. Like, I don’t want you to put that burden on me because I’m not a slave and none of your parents are slave owners.’”

Faith in God

Following graduation from St. John’s, he accepted a commission to West Point. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in leadership management.