Representative Wesley Hunt, a Republican from Texas, blasted California Gov. Gavin Newsom over remarks he made earlier this week while attempting to connect with black voters in Georgia, where Newsom referenced scoring a 960 on his SAT and being unable to read, which he later claimed was because of his dyslexia. Hunt described the comments as racially condescending and emblematic of a broader problem within the Democratic Party.
While many have criticized Newsom’s remarks, Hunt argued that Democrats too often treat black Americans as a monolithic voting bloc rather than as individuals. That mindset runs counter to the core American principle of judging people by their character and personal achievement. Hunt pointed to his own upbringing, explaining that in his household, faith and education were emphasized as the path to success. He credited his parents’ commitment to academic excellence for his and his siblings' attendance at West Point and for their going on to earn advanced degrees from prestigious institutions.
🚨 HOLY CRAP. Rep. Wesley Hunt PUMMELS Gavin Newsom for saying "I'm just like you!" to black people by saying he gets low test scores and can't read
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) February 26, 2026
"Gavin, you're NOT LIKE ME. I studied my BUTT off to get here!" pic.twitter.com/Wb5CegBn2N
"Under NO circumstances are you going to…
"I can feel one way about it," Stephen A. Smith, who criticized the Golden State governor's comments, but didn't go as far as to claim racism, said. "How did you feel about it?"
"Well, I call it the soft bigotry of low expectations," Rep. Hunt replied.
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There are a lot of black men and women that aren't like that. A lot of us really did study hard. We really did work very hard. You see, I had parents that believe in education. We had a sign in our house that said Jesus plus education equals success. There's a reason why my brother, sister, and I all went to West Point. There's a reason why I earned three master's degrees in four years from Cornell University. My brother is a Harvard Business School graduate. My sister has her master's degree in applied mathematics. It was a West Point instructor while both my brother and I were cadets, and we were black doing it the entire time.
"And so when you say that I can't read and I have a 960 SAT, the insinuation that you are putting on all black people is that we are a monolith, is that this is how you view us, this is what you really think about us," he added.
Democrats have consistently applied racist stereotypes to nearly every racial minority, in a pattern that has persisted since the days when the party supported slavery. Time and again, they have reduced individuals to demographic categories, assuming shared experiences, beliefs, and limitations based solely on race. In doing so, they have failed to uphold a central foundation of American identity: that each person must be treated as an individual rather than as part of a group. That principle is the bedrock of meritocracy and the free market, a system built on the idea that character, talent, discipline, and hard work, not race or background, determine success.
Rep. Hunt went on:
And look, I understand some of it may have been a little bit tongue-in-cheek and he was pandering to an audience, but for whatever reason I see a lot of pandering that comes from the left. I think about Hillary Clinton carrying hot sauce in her purse. I think about Joe Biden saying, 'If you don't vote for me, then you ain't black.' I think about Kathy Hochul talking about, you know, black kids don't even know what a computer is. And I see these kinds of things and I just shake my head. That is not who we are as a people.
"Now, Steven, you talk about you didn't do good on your SATs, but you have a pretty extensive vocabulary, as I have heard over the years. So clearly you're an astute man, and you have studied quite a bit, but that's just it," he added. "We are not the same, and you have to understand why that's insulting to people like me."
He then turned to address Newsom directly:
Gavin, you're not like me. I studied my butt off to get here. I worked my butt off to get here. Hard work, grit, determination, 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, and I won by 25 points, because I'm being judged not by the color of my skin but by the content of my character. And there are a lot of conservative white people and black people and Hispanic people that voted for me. But under no circumstances 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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