In the months after he lost his Senate bid this spring, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt racked up more than $5,000 in charges at Joe’s Seafood in Washington DC, more than $3,000 at Mastro’s Steakhouse in Houston and more than $6,500 at a Southern California hotel where basic rooms run $1,300 a night.<\/p>\n
All of it was paid for by Hunt’s Hellfire Political Action Committee, a type of fund created to allow members to support other campaigns and political groups.<\/p>\n
Outgoing members of Congress\u00a0who are left with a sizeable campaign accounts often use them to pay\u00a0down debts or consultants’ fees, or to<\/p>\n
return\u00a0contributions to donors who might have given money for elections in which the candidate is no longer running.<\/p>\n
But Hunt is one of several Texas members\u00a0who are also<\/p>\n
using large amounts\u00a0on dining out, parties and travel, according to a review of campaign filings between April and June, the most recent period available.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Houston Republican<\/p>\n
was at the top of the list, with more than $39,000 in food and travel expenses, closely followed by U.S. Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Magnolia, and U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, both of whom had more than $32,000 in charges.<\/p>\n
Texas has 11 House members leaving Congress at the end this year, more than how many left\u00a0during the last big exodus in 2018. Together, they spent more than $178,000 on travel and dining expenses during the quarter.<\/p>\n
Members either declined or did not respond to requests for comment on the spending. U.S. Rep. Dan\u00a0Crenshaw clarified an event expense filed by his campaign fund but otherwise declined to comment.<\/p>\n
In Washington, congressmen routinely enjoy high-priced dinners and travel far beyond what they can afford on their $174,000-a-year salaries. But they do it largely to woo donors, something outgoing members seemingly have little need for.<\/p>\n
While federal campaign law broadly prohibits spending for “personal use,” there are few specific rules about how political committees spend their money, said Michael Beckel, director of money in politics reform at the non-partisan Issue One.<\/p>\n
“These are funds that could help continue to fuel political ambitions, if they decide to run later, but if politicians are using the money for lavish dinners, that would raise eyebrows,” he said.<\/p>\n
Here’s a breakdown of the Texas members.<\/p>\n
1. Wesley Hunt (Houston Republican) – $39,757<\/p>\n
A former helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army, Hunt has a history of living well on campaign funds. He was featured in the news outlet Politico’s list of\u00a0 Congress’s biggest spenders at DC restaurants, with 86 charges in 2023 and 2024 totaling more than $9,800 at Bullfeathers, a Capitol Hill tavern favored by GOP members \u2013 though Hunt surpassed them all.<\/p>\n
The recent spending\u00a0by his Hellfire Political Action Committee appears<\/p>\n
unusual. A study by Issue One in 2021 found that leadership PACs on average spent 70% of their money that way, but Hellfire only spent 22% on contributions to other groups this election cycle, according to campaign filings.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Hunt’s spending drew the attention of the Office of Congressional Ethics, which accused Hunt and U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson of using campaign donations to pay for membership dues at private clubs \u2013 a violation of federal law. In Hunt’s case the office was looking at $74,000 in charges at Houston’s Post Oak Hotel, including membership fees at its exclusive Oak Room club.<\/p>\n
Both men were later cleared by the House Ethics Committee, with Hunt releasing a statement saying, “I did everything by the book and have fully complied with the committee since these false allegations were first referred.”<\/p>\n
2. Morgan Luttrell (Magnolia Republican) – $32,682<\/p>\n
Luttrell racked up big bills at some of Washington’s most exclusive restaurants.<\/p>\n
On May 5, he spent $1,750 at The Occidental, where a ribeye runs $89 and a martini $21. Then two weeks later he spent $1,126 at the Capitol Hill Club, the private GOP club down the block from the U.S. Capitol, before heading back to the Occidental on June 8 for a $3,023 meal.<\/p>\n
A former Navy Seal and brother of famed soldier Marcus Luttrell, Morgan Luttrell only served two terms in Congress before announcing he was stepping down last year.<\/p>\n
In June, he attended a gathering at the Watercolor Inn in Florida, a beach resort where rooms go for more than $800 a night, with some of his supporters and U.S. Rep. August Pfluger in attendance. Luttrell expensed more than $8,100 in charges from the hotel for “facility rental\/catering\/travel.”<\/p>\n
3. Al Green (Houston Democrat) – $32,634<\/p>\n
Catering companies in and around Houston know Al Green.<\/p>\n
From April to June, Green racked up more than $15,000 in catering bills. One of his favorites was Nuksy’s Fine Catering in Stafford, where you can feed 100 people a lunch of Fried Catfish, glazed carrots and mashed potatoes for less than $16 a head \u2013 desert and drink not included.<\/p>\n
Green is a regular host in Houston, putting on an annual breakfast in August highlighting his and other lawmakers’ efforts to get Congress to recognize August 20th as Slavery Remembrance Day.<\/p>\n
On May 7 his campaign fund paid more than $11,000 to the Wyndham Hotel near NRG Park, which will host this year’s event.<\/p>\n
4. Jodey Arrington (Lubbock Republican) – $26,889<\/p>\n
Across the street from the National’s baseball stadium, D.C. insiders frequently gather at the Mission Navy Yard event space for catered platters of sushi and quesadillas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among their customers is Arrington, whose campaign fund paid more than $8,000 for an event there in May. That was a month after he spent almost $2,300 on an event at the Texas Tech Club in Lubbock, a booster’s group for his alma mater Texas Tech.<\/p>\n
A former staffer during the George W. Bush administration, Arrington was first elected to Congress in 2016 and eventually rose to chair the powerful House Budget Committee. He announced his retirement last year.<\/p>\n
He’s also a regular at some of D.C.’s most exclusive restaurants, running up more than $3,000 in charges at the Capitol Hill Club, along with more than $1,200 at the power lunch spot Capital Grille.<\/p>\n
And he did his time at President Donald Trump’s golf club in Miami, with a close to $900 meal at Trump National Doral.<\/p>\n
5. Dan Crenshaw (Humble Republican) – $15,322<\/p>\n
Since losing his primary to right-wing challenger Steve Toth in March, Crenshaw has mostly kept a low profile in Washington \u2013 save the occasional X post criticizing college students for complaining about $20 burritos. His advice: “stop whining, get a job, eat Ramen like the rest of us did in college.”<\/p>\n
Crenshaw doesn’t have much in the way of meals on his campaign finance report, but he did expense $12,400 for a what he described as down payment on a goodbye party for staff and supporters. The expense was listed as Cattlemen’s Steakhouse in Fort Worth, but Crenshaw said that was an error, and the party was set to take place at Cattlemen’s County Club, a bar in Houston.<\/p>\n
He also ran up a more than $800 tab at a Chic-Fil-A in Atlanta for an unspecified number of chicken sandwiches and milkshakes. Otherwise, his travel expenses mostly covered four Ubers rides that added up to almost $1,500.<\/p>\n
6. Troy Nehls (Richmond Republican)\u00a0 – $10,659<\/p>\n
7. Marc Veasey (Fort Worth Democrat) – $7,310<\/p>\n
8. Chip Roy (Austin Republican) – $5,481<\/p>\n
9. Julie Johnson (Farmers Branch Democrat) – $4,329<\/p>\n
10. Lloyd Doggett (Austin Democrat) – $3,536<\/p>\n
11. Michael McCaul (Austin Republican) – $946<\/p>\n
To compile the list, the Houston Chronicle searched campaign finance records at the Federal Election Commission for expenses labeled travel or meal, along with similar terms commonly found in members’ expense reports.<\/p>\n
But that likely doesn’t show the whole picture. Members can use funds to pay credit card bills, with no indication of what they were paying for. And there is no standard practice for how meals or travel are reported, making analysis of members’ spending prone to undercounting.<\/p>\n
It’s also difficult to parse whether these expenses were normal parts of winding down their congressional obligations or a soon- to- be- ex-members of Congress enjoying the perks of office one last time before they return to civilian life.<\/p>\n
For instance, some members listed catering and event charges that could be an opportunity to meet with constituents before they leave office. But few details were available about most of the events.<\/p>\n
“If it was simply the member and a single donor or advisor the optics are different than a larger event with dozens of people,” Beckel said. “But in both cases, they’re often using funds that most Americans don’t have access to to enjoy fancy steaks and fine dining experiences.”<\/p>\n
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This article originally published at Before leaving Congress, Texas members are spending big on steakhouses and fancy hotels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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