Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX), who is running in the Republican primary for a Senate seat in the Lone Star State, has filed a police report after a senior campaign staffer for one of his GOP opponents publicly posted a 2016 provisional ballot that included personal information about Hunt and his family. The document contained the last four digits of Hunt’s Social Security number, his driver’s license number, and even his home address.
Matt Mackowiak, the communications director for Sen. John Cornyn’s re-election campaign for U.S. Senate, posted the documents on social media platform X, but without any redactions for the personal information. Cornyn’s campaign then reposted the images, which have since been deleted. Sources from within Hunt’s campaign spoke to Fox News and revealed that local police asked the congressman if he wanted to press charges and he said yes.
Mark Herman, the Harris County Constable, confirmed that a report had been filed. A source from Hunt’s campaign then told Fox that law enforcement officials are planning to subpoena X to retrieve the deleted post that revealed Hunt’s personal information. Hunt himself released a statement about the incident, lobbing accusations at Mackowiak and Cornyn’s campaign of “doxxing” his family.
“The tragic situation involving Savannah Guthrie is a painful reminder of how vulnerable our family truly is,” Hunt said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “They should never be put in harm’s way. And yet, that’s exactly what happened to my family.” Hunt also said, “Despite knowing how dangerous and irresponsible it is to doxx someone’s family, the Cornyn campaign did it to mine. What happened to my family members should never happen to anyone.”
Hunt then revealed that Cornyn had not reached out since the incident occurred. “Instead, his campaign’s actions put my family at risk, and they’ve chosen to look the other way,” Hunt added. “I will continue to pursue every legal avenue available to make sure my parents are safe and that those responsible are held accountable.”
Mackowiak, who is serving as the president of Potomac Strategy Group, also spoke with Fox and argued that the documents are public. A record request can be made through the county clerk’s office and they would provide a copy of the provisional ballot. He then noted that the Daily Mail published an article about the story and also neglected to redact the personal information.
Before Mackowiak published the post on X, Hunt’s campaign shared the provisional ballot with the Houston Chronicle, but the personal information was redacted. The whole reason behind digging up the provisional ballot was because Hunt had stated that he supported President Donald Trump since 2016, but there was no ballot cast on November 4 of that year as Hunt wasn’t registered to vote at the time.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running against Hunt and Cornyn in the primary, weighed in on the situation, saying that Cornyn’s campaign is “cheering on his staff” for releasing Hunt’s information. “I still can’t believe that John Cornyn’s senior staffer last night doxxed Wesley Hunt’s family and posted his social security number on X and then Cornyn defended it,” Paxton went on to say in a statement on X.
“The man who’s made ‘character’ the centerpiece of his campaign is cheering on his staff doxxing his opponent’s family,” Paxton wrote in a different post. “Character does matter, but John’s never had any and tonight proves that.” Republican Party of Texas General Counsel Rachel Hooper told Fox that the publication of Hunt’s information “should be investigated.”
“Over the past two years, we have witnessed multiple assassination attempts against President Trump and the assassination of Charlie Kirk,” Hooper said. “As a former prosecutor and former deputy chief of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, the public release of personal identifying information should be investigated and the safety of elected officials, candidates, and their families must be given the utmost priority.”
However, a number of legal experts have analyzed the situation and doubt that either federal law or the Texas Penal Code 42.074 would be justification for charges against Mackowiak. “Laws criminalizing the posting of Social Security numbers, addresses, or other personal information are generally focused on situations in which the specific intent in posting the personal information was to doxx, intimidate, harass, or otherwise cause harm,” former federal prosecutor Andrew Cherkasky said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“Specific intent crimes are often very difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, particularly where there appears to be a legitimate (potentially First Amendment protected) intent to post for the purpose of exposing political affiliations,” Cherkasky continued. Hunt concluded his statement to the outlet by saying, “I hope the Cornyn campaign takes this seriously. Because I do.”
Watch country star John Rich praise AG Ken Paxton, Cornyn’s more serious opponent, here:
Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons