Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas announced Monday that he’s running for the Senate, jumping into an already bitter battle between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and primary challenger Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“The U.S. Senate race in Texas must be about more than a petty feud between two men who have spent months trading barbs,” Hunt said in a statement as he launched his campaign. “With my candidacy, this race will finally be about what’s most important — Texas.”

Hunt’s entry into the race turns up the heat on an already combustible battle between Cornyn, who’s running in 2026 for a fifth six-year term representing red state Texas in the Senate, and Paxton, the MAGA firebrand who’s an ally of President Donald Trump.

Hunt, a West Point graduate who flew Apache helicopters during his Army service and a rising MAGA star who is in his second term representing a safe Republican district in the Houston-area, emphasized in his statement, “My record speaks louder than words. I am the most consistently conservative legislator representing Texas in Congress.”

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Cornyn, who is backed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, trailed Paxton by double digits at the beginning of the summer.

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But Cornyn has narrowed the polling gap in recent weeks, thanks in part to a massive ad blitz by allies that spotlighted the numerous controversies that have battered Paxton over the past decade.

Trump, whose endorsement would make a major impact in the Texas primary battle, has remained neutral to date.

Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas opens a Trump 2024 campaign field office in Philadelphia, on June 4, 2024. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News )

Hunt, pointing to his backing of Trump as the then-former president launched his 2024 White House comeback, touted that “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.”

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Hunt had been mulling a Senate run for months and sources confirmed to Fox News earlier this year that the congressman had made his case to Trump’s political team that he’s the only person who could win both a GOP primary and a general election.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is running for re-election in 2026 for a fifth six-year term in the U.S. Senate. (Reuters)

And an aligned super PAC spent big bucks this summer to increase Hunt’s name recognition across the state of Texas.

Paxton adviser Nick Maddux, in a statement to Fox News, said that “Primaries are good for our party and our voters, and Paxton and Hunt both know that Texans deserve better than the failed, anti-Trump record of John Cornyn.”

But Cornyn campaign senior adviser Matt Mackowiak argued in a statement that “Rep. 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’s entry into the GOP nomination race could prevent the winner of next March’s primary from winning a majority of the vote, which would trigger a runoff election two and a half months later.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, seen at the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, is primary challenging GOP Sen. John Cornyn in the 2026 election. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Democrats are hoping for a Paxton victory in the primary, which they believe would make next year’s general election more competitive.

It’s been nearly four decades since a Democrat won a Senate election in Texas. You have to go back to the 1988 re-election victory by then-Sen. Lloyd Bentsen.

Former Rep. Colin Allred, who lost last November’s Senate election in Texas to conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz by over 8 points, is running for the 2026 Democratic nomination, along with rising star Texas state Rep. James Talarico and former astronaut Terry Virts.

An Oklahoma police officer’s smooth moves while issuing a noise citation have gone viral.

The officer with the Tulsa Police Department was caught on video dancing at a party while onlookers recorded with their phones and cheered him on at approximately  9 p.m. on Sept. 27. 

“The caller said her neighbors had been playing loud music all day, and she wanted to file a complaint,” the department’s Facebook post with the video of the dancing officer said.

“Since this was the second time officers got called out there for the same issue, Officer Greene did issue a nuisance sound citation… but while he was there, he took a few minutes to also show off his dance moves!”

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Tulsa PD’s video of the dance had been viewed more than 1.1 million times as of Monday afternoon. 

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Tulsa Police Department’s Officer Greene appears to be doing a choreographed group dance.  (Facebook/Tulsa Police Department)

“The fact that TPD posted the video after the complaint makes it even funnier,” one Facebook user wrote. 

Onlookers are telling Tulsa PD’s Officer Greene the moves while recording him dancing.  (Facebook/Tulsa Police Department)

The department did post a comment on the video explaining the ordinance that the partygoers allegedly violated. 

“The people out there appreciated his style, and also agreed to turn down the music,” TPD wrote. “Nice moves, Officer Greene!” 

Early voting is now underway in California in a special election that will make a huge impact on next year’s battle for the U.S. House majority.

California voters are deciding whether to pass a ballot proposition this November which would dramatically alter the state’s congressional districts, putting the left-leaning state front-and-center in the high-stakes political fight over redistricting that pits President Donald Trump and the GOP against the Democrats.

California state lawmakers this summer approved a special proposition on the November ballot to obtain voter approval to temporarily sidetrack the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democrat-dominated legislature. Ballots began being mailed out on Monday.

The effort in California, which could create five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts, aims to counter the passage in the reliable red state of Texas of a new map that aims to create up to five right-leaning House seats. Failure to approve what’s known as Proposition 50 would be a stinging setback for Democrats.

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Two-term Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is seen as a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, is spearheading the push to pass the proposition.

“If we lose here, we are going to have total Republican control in the House, the Senate and the White House for at least two more years,” Newsom emphasized in a recent fundraising appeal to supporters. “If we win here, we can put a check on Trump for his final two years.”

The push by Trump and Republicans for rare mid-decade redistricting is part of a broad effort by the GOP to pad its razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

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Trump and his political team are aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House, when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections.

Missouri last month joined Texas as the second GOP-controlled state to pass congressional redistricting ahead of next year’s elections. The new map in Missouri is likely to give the GOP another right-leaning seat.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas in August signed into law new congressional maps that redistrict ahead of next year’s midterm elections. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)

But unlike Texas and Missouri, California voters need to weigh in before giving redistricting power back to the legislature in Sacramento.

“Heaven help us if we lose,” Newsom said in his fundraising pitch. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for Democrats.”

Proponents and opponents of Proposition 50 reported raising more than $215 million as of Oct. 2, with much of the money being dished out to pay for a deluge of ads on both sides.

One of the two main groups countering Newsom and the Democrats is labeling their effort “Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab.”

Also getting into the fight is former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the last Republican governor of California.

During his tenure as governor, Schwarzenegger had a starring role in the passage of constitutional amendments in California in 2008 and 2010 that took the power to draw state legislative and congressional districts away from politicians and placed it in the hands of an independent commission.

“That’s what they want to do is take us backwards — this is why it is important for you to vote no on Prop 50,” Schwarzenegger says in an ad against Proposition 50. “Democracy — we’ve got to protect it, and we’ve got to go and fight for it.”

As ballots start reaching mailboxes across California, a panel of federal judges in Texas is hearing a case in the legal battle over the passage of the new congressional maps.

If redistricting in Texas is blocked, it’s not clear how the ruling would impact California. 

Newsom this summer indicated that California could continue with its nonpartisan redistricting commission if other states rescinded their efforts to change their maps. But that language was not included in the proposition now on the ballot.

Former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California opposes efforts by Democrats to temporarily suspend the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission. (Tristar Media/WireImage)

Even before Trump initiated his redistricting push, Ohio was under court order to redraw its maps. That could boost Republicans in a one-time battleground state that now leans right.

Republicans in the GOP-dominated states of Indiana and Florida are also mulling congressional redistricting. And Democrats in heavily blue Maryland are weighing a redistricting push.

Other states considering altering their maps are Democrat-dominated Illinois and red states Kansas and Nebraska. 

Meanwhile, Democrats could pick up a seat in Republican-dominated Utah, where a judge recently ordered the GOP-controlled legislature to draw new maps after ruling that lawmakers four years ago ignored an independent commission approved by voters to prevent partisan gerrymandering.