Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas nearly handed Democrats a win on restricting President Donald Trump’s war powers in Venezuela after failing to show up on time for a key vote Thursday, underscoring how little margin Republicans have in the House.
Hunt, a Republican locked in a competitive GOP Senate primary back home, missed two earlier votes before hustling into the chamber roughly 20 minutes late for the Venezuela resolution. His vote ultimately helped kill the bipartisan measure, which failed by just one vote.
Had it passed, the resolution would have directed Trump to remove U.S. military forces from Venezuela, even though the administration has said there are no boots on the ground.
The episode added fresh strain to House GOP leadership, which is operating with a razor-thin majority and little room for error when members are absent.
Asked before the vote whether he was adequately representing his constituents, Hunt declined to engage, saying he had returned to Washington to make sure lawmakers and staff could leave town on schedule ahead of a winter storm.
“I just want to make sure that y’all are OK when the storm hits, because it’s coming, especially here in D.C. It’s gonna hit y’all really, really hard,” Hunt said.
After casting his vote, Hunt immediately exited the chamber.
“Y’all be safe. Y’all be safe. Y’all be safe. This storm is coming,” he said as he got into a car.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Hunt’s absence earlier in the day did not make his job “any easier,” noting the Texas lawmaker had also missed a separate vote Republicans narrowly won.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin – July 15, 2024: Representative Wesley Hunt (TX-38) at the Republican National Convention.
With the recent death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California and the resignation of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Republicans can afford to lose only two votes on legislation without Democratic help. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York and Rep. Tom McClintock of California also missed votes Thursday, though Stefanik returned in time to vote on the Venezuela measure.
Thursday’s scramble, however, fits a broader pattern for Hunt.
In 2025, he missed 87 votes, or 25.1% of all measures considered that year. Those absences included votes condemning antisemitism, passing an anti-deepfake pornography bill and advancing Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. His longest streak came in September, when he missed 22 votes over two days as the House debated a water and energy spending bill.
So far in 2026, Hunt has voted on just two days.
GOP leaders have often benefited from the fact that many of Hunt’s missed votes came on bipartisan measures considered under the “suspension” process, which typically pass with wide margins and are less likely to hinge on a single vote.
That cushion vanished Thursday when Hunt missed a procedural vote needed to advance spending legislation and avert a government shutdown. That measure passed by one vote, hours before Hunt arrived for the Venezuela debate.
Hunt’s office insisted his absences have not derailed Republican priorities.
“Zero bills, resolutions, or GOP priorities have been delayed or stopped because of Rep. Hunt’s priority to barnstorm Texas to retire John Cornyn,” the office said.
The office also said GOP leaders had indicated Hunt would not be needed in Washington earlier in the week and that Johnson personally called him Thursday to say the situation had changed.
“In the middle of his campaign to retire a career politician of over 40 years, Hunt left the campaign trail, rushed to Washington, and delivered the deciding vote that nuked the radical Democrats’ plan to block President Trump from securing the Western Hemisphere,” the statement said.
