A Republican congressman, hoping to secure Donald Trump’s endorsement, has been found embellishing his story about his premature son’s prolonged struggle in intensive care. This narrative was used to justify his notably poor voting attendance record among GOP members.

Wesley Hunt, a representative from Texas, was absent for 77 votes in 2025, a figure nearly tenfold compared to his peers and the highest among Republicans, according to data from GovTrack.

Hunt’s voting performance has come under fire from his primary rivals, including Texas Senator John Cornyn and the state’s Attorney General, Ken Paxton.

Hunt has attributed his absenteeism to the early birth of his son, who he claims spent an extended period in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), alongside his wife’s concurrent hospitalization.

“I missed a significant number of votes because my child was in the NICU for a considerable duration when I was newly elected to Congress,” Hunt explained to reporters in December, amid Cornyn’s criticisms.

However, this account conflicts with earlier statements and his wife’s social media posts, casting doubt on his explanation.

Hunt and his wife Emily welcomed their son Willie in December 2022. The lawmaker did not miss any votes while his son was hospitalized, according to the couple’s statements from the time. His recent claim that the boy spent ‘months’ fighting for his life in the NICU is flatly contradicted by the record.

Hunt’s three missed votes on January 6, 2023, do not constitute a ‘large swath,’ and he said at the time that his son was home that day.

Wesley Hunt, his wife, and their three children, Willie, and his two older sisters, Victoria and Olivia

Hunt brushed off attacks from Cornyn, arguing in 2025 that his son was born six weeks early

Hunt with his son, seen in an image posted to his Instagram

Hunt seen with President Donald Trump in an Instagram post

Hunt standing over his son in the NICU 

The only actual ‘large swath’ of missed votes in 2023 occurred from January 26–27 and February 2–9. During the same period, the family was taking the baby on outings, and Hunt was telling interviewers that everyone was doing great.

Hunt claimed on X in October 2025 that his son was born six weeks premature.

His own press release from 2023, however, said four weeks.

His wife’s birth announcement gave a January 2023 due date when the pregnancy was announced the previous November, but their son was born on December 27, 2022.

The hospitalization story has shifted just as dramatically. 

In January 2023, Hunt told C-SPAN his son had spent ‘a couple of weeks’ in the NICU and that ‘everyone is doing perfectly well.’

Days later, he assured Steve Bannon his son was ‘out of the NICU, gaining weight.’

Recalling the time of his son’s birth in 2025, however, Hunt said in a press release that the same child had apparently been ‘fighting for his life’ and spent ‘the first months of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit.’

Willie Parish Hunt II, in an image posted to Hunt’s political account on X in January of 2023 

A 2023 press release from then Congressman-Elect Wesley Hunt, which notes his son was born ‘premature by four weeks’

Hunt said in a 2025 press release that his son had been ‘fighting for his life’ and spent ‘the first months of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit’

The NICU story is not Hunt’s only credibility problem on the campaign trail.

Cornyn further alleges that Hunt was caught spreading additional falsehoods in another release from his team on Friday.

Following allegations that Hunt attempted to vote illegally in the 2016 presidential election, his team tried to correct the record, but Cornyn claims they ended up revealing another falsehood.

According to newly released documents, Hunt cast a provisional ballot on November 4, 2016, but it was not counted because he was not registered to vote at the time.

Records indicate he was informed at the polling place that he was not registered. In an affidavit completed that day, Hunt seemingly told an election judge that he failed to register in time because he had been discharged from the military in October 2016, one month earlier. 

However, his official congressional biography, campaign materials, and military discharge documents list his separation from service as occurring in 2012.

Hunt did not attempt to cure the provisional ballot, and no vote was ultimately counted. The allegations were amplified by Matt Mackowiak, a senior adviser to Cornyn’s campaign, who accused Hunt of committing voter fraud and called for an investigation by Ken Paxton, the current Texas AG and fellow primary opponent.

Hunt’s signed affidavit from the 2016 election, which lists his month and year of discharge from the military as October of 2016  

Hunt’s Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty in the United States Army, which lists his length of service as just over eight years, starting in 2004 and ending in 2012

Mackowiak alleged that Hunt lied in a sworn statement to cast a ballot.

Additional reports have shown that Hunt, then serving on the board of a Houston private school, provided emotional support to students upset by the 2016 election outcome.

Hunt’s neglect to vote has persisted to this day and has plagued his entire congressional career.

Last month, Hunt skipped more than 90 percent of the votes he was scheduled to cast – though one series was held open so he could provide the tie-breaker after a police escort rushed him from Dulles airport.

In 2024, he missed votes while acting as ‘a top surrogate for President Trump,’ as he described it in an October 2025 interview.

That loyalty to Trump isn’t being returned, as the President has yet to weigh in on the hot primary contest with an endorsement.

A University of Houston poll released this week placed Hunt third at 17 percent, behind Paxton, who leads the primary at 38 percent, and Cornyn at 31 percent.

The same poll showed Paxton beating Cornyn in a potential runoff, 51 percent to 40 percent.

The first round of voting in the Texas primary is March 3. Early voting begins next Tuesday, February 17.

The Daily Mail has contacted Hunt for comment.