U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, who is running for Senate in Texas, recently called out a top Republican staffer under Senator Tim Scott for what he described as a “racist trope.”
After Hunt, one of a handful of Black Republicans serving in Congress, posted a picture of himself and his wife at a White House holiday party, Jennifer DeCasper, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), suggested the congressman’s ankles were ashy.
“Those gray ankles got dude looking like he just did a tap-dance routine in a bag of flour,” DeCasper commented on X, reports 24Sight News.
Given DeCasper, who is Black, works for the NRSC’s Black chairman, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, Hunt slammed the remarks and said he is disheartened to see such rhetoric from senior staff serving under the country’s longest-serving Black U.S. senator.
“As a Black Republican, I am no stranger to vile and racist tropes aimed at my family and me,” Hunt told 24Sight News in a statement. “Historically, those attacks have come almost exclusively from the radical left.”
“That is why it is both surprising and deeply disheartening to now see similar behavior coming from individuals serving at the NRSC under Senator Tim Scott,” Congressman Hunt said of DeCasper, who served as Scott’s campaign manager and chief of staff of his Senate office before working at NRSC.
He added, “We should hold ourselves to a higher standard. We can do better.”
A senior GOP strategist told the 24Sight News that DeCasper’s comment was “tone-deaf and insensitive,” telling the outlet, “While the party tries to recruit minorities, they are making jokes about a minority congressman.”
Hunt is in a heated primary race for the U.S. Senate, running against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The winner of the March 3 primary will face off against the Democratic nominee, who will be either U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett or Texas State Rep. James Talarico.
Senator Scott has endorsed Senator Cornyn. While President Trump has declined to endorse in the Texas Republican primary, Hunt has said he would love his endorsement.
A poll conducted by the University of Houston in October shows Hunt trailing with 22% support from Texas voters, compared to Cornyn (34%) and Paxton (33%).
