{"id":889100,"date":"2026-01-31T01:23:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T07:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/31\/records-show-anti-dei-republican-helped-install-ideology-at-texas-health-center\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T01:23:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T07:23:42","slug":"records-show-anti-dei-republican-helped-install-ideology-at-texas-health-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/31\/records-show-anti-dei-republican-helped-install-ideology-at-texas-health-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Records Show Anti-DEI Republican Helped Install Ideology At Texas Health Center"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Republican Texas Rep. Wesley Hunt took part in embedding divisive racial and gender ideology into a Texas health center, despite rallying against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies during his time in office.<\/p>\n

Hunt served<\/a> on the board<\/a> of Harris Center for Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities<\/a> from January 2019 to March 2021, during which time he took part in multiple votes to approve contracts and funding for pro-DEI and gender ideology groups, as well as the hiring of a \u201cqueer, disabled Latin x\u201d individual. A jail diversion program Hunt helped oversee at the center also partnered with a Soros-backed prosecutor to let accused criminals walk away with minimal oversight \u2014 often resulting in repeat offenses. (RELATED: Anti-DEI Republican Helped Make Racial, Gender Ideology \u2018Foundational\u2019 At Prestigious School)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Records show Hunt was present for meetings in which lucrative contracts with organizations supporting leftist ideology were unanimously passed.<\/p>\n

The board awarded Justice System Partners<\/a> (JSP) a new, $151,000 contract<\/a> in October 2019 \u201cto provide an external evaluation of The Harris Center\u2019s jail diversion program,\u201d according to documents obtained by the DCNF. The left-leaning<\/a> organization has argued that \u201cstructural racism exists both in society and within the criminal legal system,\u201d and that the \u201cintersection\u201d of \u201crace, skin tone, gender, disability, sexuality, age, and income\u201d lead to unequal outcomes in the justice system, according to its website.<\/p>\n

In 2017, JSP advocated<\/a> ending cash bail for \u201cdefendants charged with serious but not violent crimes,\u201d elevating analysts who argue it\u2019s a matter of \u201cpersonal freedom and liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between fiscal years 2020<\/a> and 2021<\/a>, the Center paid JSP $130,000 for \u201cConsultation Services.\u201d During that time period, JSP, in collaboration with The Harris Center, published a guide<\/a> calling for \u201cmore just and equitable alternatives to incarceration\u201d for specific racial or ethnic groups.<\/p>\n

JSP continued advancing that framework in its 2023 \u201cEquity Through Action<\/a>\u201d plan, which called for restructuring decision-making authority to prioritize outcome equity and for \u201cdiversifying decision-makers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring his short time on the board, Wesley Hunt was one of the only voices pushing back. He challenged the left\u2019s ideological insanity head-on, and ultimately walked away rather than legitimize woke nonsense,\u201d a spokesman for Hunt\u2019s campaign told the Daily Caller News Foundation. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t an endorsement. It was a warning sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA wake-up call that hardened his resolve to dismantle these ideologies once and for all when he got to Congress. Even Elon Musk has commended Wesley on his anti-Woke and anti-DEI rhetoric and policies,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Hunt has been highly critical of DEI, asserting<\/a> that such policies are \u201cdiscriminatory<\/a>\u201d and that the focus should be on merit over race. Hunt celebrated<\/a> the University of Texas in 2024 for abolishing its DEI departments, positing that DEI was the cause of rising antisemitism and attacks on First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is simple: Wesley Hunt is surging, and the establishment is scrambling to stop him. We wish John Cornyn the best on his bronze place finish,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n

At another board meeting in 2019, a co<\/a>ntract<\/a> amendment<\/a> worth an additional $40,000 was approved<\/a> for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Greater Houston to provide staff trainings for the Jail Diversion Program. NAMI\u2019s 2019 legislative review report<\/a> was littered with phrases such as \u201cracial injustice,\u201d \u201clived experience,\u201d \u201cinclusive and culturally competent care\u201d and \u201cracial profiling,\u201d and mentioned the \u201cstigma and discrimination\u201d associated with \u201cBlack, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQI+\u201d communities.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Hunt was present<\/a> when the board unanimously approved a contract renewal<\/a> for NAMI to the tune of nearly $90,000. Shortly after, NAMI Greater Houston promoted<\/a> \u201cMinority\u201d resources for \u201cUnlearning and Transforming Racism,\u201d according to an archived version of the website, which led to a site<\/a> explaining that the phrase \u201cAll Lives Matter\u201d was \u201cproblematic\u201d and featured links for \u201cDeconstructing White Privilege\u201d and understanding \u201cracism in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

A May 2020 NAMI Greater Houston page<\/a> also called racism \u201ca public health crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

NAMI openly advocates<\/a> for addressing \u201cdisparities in [mental health and substance use disorder] services and trauma for people of color, \u2026 LGBTQ+ persons, children in foster care, and other groups.\u201d NAMI\u2019s website actively promotes resources for \u201cLGBTQ+\u201d and \u201cTransgender youth,\u201d including talklines<\/a> and chatrooms<\/a> for those under 19 years old where minors can discuss \u201csexual orientation or gender identity\/expression issues.\u201d The organization also supports \u201cCulturally Competent Care<\/a>\u201d that focuses specifically on race.<\/p>\n

In a February 2020 meeting with Hunt present, the board unanimously voted<\/a> to add Gabriel Cazares to the Intellectual Developmental Disabilities Public Advisory Council (IDD-PAC) as an \u201cOrganizational Representative,\u201d meeting documents show. Cazares at the time was director of the Mayor\u2019s Office for People with Disabilities, where he used<\/a> the position to \u201cembe[d] equity and access across all departments,\u201d to \u201censure full civic participation for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, immigrant, and low-income disabled communities,\u201d and to deliver disability rights training \u201cthrough a justice-oriented, intersectional lens,\u201d according to his LinkedIn.<\/p>\n

Cazares\u2019s prior experience included The Latino Racial Justice Circle, a group he said \u201cfinancially supports\u201d those facing immigration-related legal costs and worked to \u201ceducate\u201d the public about \u201cundocumented communities\u201d by \u201ccentering their voices and experiences,\u201d according<\/a> to his LinkedIn.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Harris\n <\/p>\n

Harris Center Board Of Trustees Meeting Document (Photo Credit: Daily Caller News Foundation)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Cazares was described as \u201ca queer, disabled Latin x\u201d person who is \u201cparticularly drawn to intersectional movements that center the voices of queer, disabled, and immigrant people of color,\u201d in a 2020 Q&A<\/a> with Equality Texas. He told the organization that \u201cwokeness\u201d must go beyond social media comments, asking, \u201cWhat are you doing on a daily basis to examine your privilege, the ways you benefit from White supremacy, and what steps are you taking to dismantle those systems of oppression?\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2018, before Hunt joined the board, the Center partnered with the first Soros-backed<\/a> district attorney in Texas, Kim Ogg, as part of a jail diversion program<\/a> for the mentally ill. The program allowed more than 6,000 offenders to sidestep incarceration before being formally charged, and leave of their own volition at any time \u201cin order to avoid booking people in the jail entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soros reportedly spent upwards of half a million dollars to get Ogg elected in 2016.<\/p>\n

According to a Harris Center slideshow presentation<\/a>, the majority of individuals it serves have committed a Class B misdemeanor<\/a>, the second most severe, which can include criminal mischief, DWI, property theft and criminal trespassing.<\/p>\n

The Center also serves a small portion of Class A misdemeanor<\/a> offenders, the highest level non-felony offense in the state, which includes domestic assault, DWI, criminal trespassing, property theft of up to $2,500, vehicular burglary and resisting arrest. These crimes are usually punishable by up to a year in jail and\/or a fine of up to $4,000 in Texas.<\/p>\n

About 47% of individuals brought into the Harris Center\u2019s diversion program went on to reoffend<\/a> as of 2019. Some offenders returned to the diversion center over 20 times, and one individual was brought back around 80 times, the organization\u2019s CEO told<\/a> the Texas Observer in 2023.<\/p>\n

One Harris County woman who was arrested in 2020 for methamphetamine possession spent two years rotating between jail, diversion programs and mental health treatments, according<\/a> to the New York Times. Despite being declared unfit to stand trial due to \u201csevere and abnormal mental health, emotional or physical distress,\u201d the woman was allowed to visit her newborn daughter, and was promptly \u201ccharged with stomping, kicking and striking her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Hunt voted for a DEI agenda at several board meetings, he was noticeably absent from other key votes. Hunt reportedly missed more than 70 percent of the board\u2019s meetings from January 2019 to October 2020, according<\/a> to the Lone Star Project. Similarly, in Congress, Hunt missed the most votes<\/a> of any Republican in 2025, and even more than Democratic Arizona Rep. Ra\u00fal Grijalva, who died<\/a> in March. (RELATED: \u2018Expected Him To Be Here\u2019: Mike Johnson Stunned Rep. Wesley Hunt Was Missing For Key House Vote)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

At a 2019 meeting Hunt did not attend, the board passed a two-year Cultural Competency and Diversity Plan<\/a>, which is described as \u201ca framework to embed cultural diversity in all the department\u2019s services, programs and policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan defines \u201ccultural competence\u201d as \u201cstaying open-minded\u201d and commits the center to annual \u201cdiversity and cultural competency\u201d training for all staff, including instruction on gender, sexual orientation, spiritual beliefs, and other identity factors, with an emphasis on promoting \u201cinclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Harris Center also boasted<\/a> its \u201cformal Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) strategy,\u201d which it uses \u201cto track meaningful D&I metrics\u201d and \u201cfor attracting diverse candidates,\u201d according to its fiscal year 2021-22 budget. It also mentioned a \u201cstaff-composed Diversity and Inclusion council,\u201d the \u201cHarris Center Inclusion Hub.\u201d<\/p>\n

The budget also listed<\/a> Montrose Counseling as a \u201ckey external stakeholder.\u201d Montrose<\/a> is a \u201cLGBTQ+\u201d-focused organization that hosts Gender and Sexuality Alliance<\/a> trainings and speaks out against<\/a> bans on sex changes for children.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo our trans youth, I want to say this: We see you. We love you. We are here for you,\u201d Montrose wrote in response to the Texas Supreme Court decision upholding the state\u2019s ban on sex changes for minors.<\/p>\n

The DCNF previously reported<\/a> Hunt\u2019s ties to Houston\u2019s prestigious St. John\u2019s School, where he seemingly helped make DEI \u201cfoundational\u201d to its policies and curriculum.<\/p>\n

Hunt first ran for congress in 2020 and earned<\/a> the Republican nomination, though he was defeated<\/a> by Democrat incumbent Lizzie Fletcher. He was later elected<\/a> to Texas\u2019 38th Congressional district in 2023 and won reelection in 2024.<\/p>\n

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter\u2019s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact\u00a0li*******<\/span>@***********************<\/span>on.org<\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Margarett Fetzer
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican Texas Rep. Wesley Hunt took part in embedding divisive racial and gender ideology into a Texas health center, despite rallying against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies during his time in office. Hunt served on the board of Harris Center for Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities from January 2019 to March 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":889101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147832,1218],"tags":[147831,7738],"class_list":{"0":"post-889100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anti-dei","8":"category-records","9":"tag-anti-dei","10":"tag-records"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}