Republican Senate candidate Wesley Hunt addressed race, merit, and political identity during two exchanges with commentator Stephen A. Smith, rejecting claims that conservatism is incompatible with Black Americans and pushing back on remarks he described as insulting.

In the first exchange, Smith asked Hunt, “How do you, as a conservative who happens to be black, answer such cynicism coming from the other side when they say things like that?”

Hunt responded by pointing to generational progress in his own family.

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“Well, it’s very simple, brother, we live in an era to where there are no more slaves and are no more slave owners,” Hunt said.

“You see, I live in an era of today.”

He then referenced his great-great-grandfather.

“My great-great-grandfather was born on a plantation. His name was Silas Crawford,” Hunt said.

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“He was born on Rosedown Plantation, about three miles north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.”

Hunt detailed the achievements of Crawford’s descendants.

“Three of his great-great-grandchildren went to West Point,” he said.

“Three of his great-great-grandchildren served in the military.”

He described a period when his family members were deployed simultaneously.

“At one point, my brother sister and I were all deployed in Baghdad at the same time for two months,” Hunt said.

“We had a praying mother and a praying community.”

Hunt then turned to his current campaign.

“One of his great great grandchildren, me is running for the United States Senate,” he said, “and is surging in the polls against last I checked two white guys.”

He added, “Nobody really cares about what I look like. They care about my service to this nation and who I am as a human being.”

He concluded that portion by stating, “I’ve done all of this as a conservative.”

Hunt also addressed voter ID laws.

“The most racist thing that I’ve kind of seen over the course of the past few years is this,” he said.

“It is the insinuation that black people are too stupid to get an ID to vote.”

He continued, “You have to have an ID for everything.”

He added, “Republicans aren’t looking at black people or white people or Asian people, for Hispanic people. Not at all.”

Hunt said, “They are saying, if you’re an American and you are competent, you can figure out how to have a cell phone and an apartment and buy groceries and buy liquor and get on airplanes and buy anything.”

He emphasized, “Everybody has to have an ID that has nothing to do with race.”

“This ain’t about to color your skin,” Hunt said.

“It’s about are you an American and do you bleed red or not?”

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In a second exchange, Smith asked Hunt about comments made by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“Gavin Newsom, I can feel one way about it. How did you feel about it?” Smith asked.

Hunt responded, “I call it the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

He said, “There are a lot of black men and women that aren’t like that.” He added, “A lot of us really did study hard. We really did work very hard.”

Hunt pointed to his upbringing.

“I had parents that believe in education,” he said. “We had a sign in our house that said Jesus was education equals success.”

He then cited his academic record.

“There’s a reason why my brother sister and I all went to West Point,” Hunt said. “There’s a reason why I earned three master’s degrees and four years from Cornell University.”

He continued, “My brother is a Harvard Business School graduate.” He added, “My sister has her master’s degree in applied mathematics.”

Hunt described serving as a West Point instructor.

“It was a West Point instructor while both my brother and I were cadets,” he said. “And we were black, doing it the entire time.”

He rejected what he described as generalizations.

“When you say that I can’t read and I have a 960 sat,” Hunt said, “the insinuation that you are putting on all black people is that we are a monolith.” He added, “This is how you view us, this is what you really think about us.”

Hunt referenced other political remarks.

“I think about Hillary Clinton carrying hot sauce in her purse,” he said. “I think about Joe Biden saying, if you don’t vote for me, then you ain’t black.” He continued, “I think about Kathy Hochul talking about, you know, black kids don’t even know what a computer is.”

“That is not who we are as a people,” Hunt said.

He closed by emphasizing his own electoral record.

“I studied my butt off to get here,” Hunt said. “I worked my butt off to get here.”

“Hard work, grit, determination,” he said, “and I’m standing on my own two feet as a black man that represents a white majority district that President Trump would have won by 20 points.”

“I won by 25 points,” Hunt said, “because I’m being judged not by the color of my skin, but by the content of my character.”

“And under no circumstances,” he concluded, “are you going to just belittle us by assuming that all black people have a 960 sat and we can barely read.”

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