Duncan Duane Hunter (born December 7, 1976) is an American former politician and United States Marine who served as a U.S. representative for from 2013 to 2020. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected to the House in 2008, and was the first combat veteran of the Iraq War to be elected to Congress. His district, numbered as the from 2009 to 2013, encompassed much of northern and inland San Diego County and a sliver of Riverside County, including the cities of El Cajon, Escondido, San Marcos, Santee and Temecula. He served in the U.S. Marines from 2001 through 2005 and succeeded his father, Republican Duncan Lee Hunter, a member of Congress from 1981 to 2009.
In 2017, the Department of Justice began a criminal investigation into Hunter and his campaign manager and wife, Margaret Jankowski, for alleged campaign finance violations.
The 2017 investigation was challenged by Hunter and denied. In August 2018, both were indicted on charges including conspiracy, wire fraud, and violating campaign finance laws. In June 2019, Jankowski pleaded guilty to conspiring to use campaign funds for personal expenses and named him as a co-conspirator.
Also in June 2019, federal prosecutors showed that from 2009 to 2016, Hunter had spent campaign funds on extramarital affairs with five women, including lobbyists and congressional staff. In December 2019, Hunter changed his plea to guilty on one count of misusing campaign funds in exchange for prosecutors dismissing the remaining 59 counts.
On January 7, 2020, he submitted letters of resignation to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Governor Gavin Newsom, that took effect on January 13, 2020. On March 17, 2020, Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison, which had been scheduled to begin in January 2021. Hunter did not serve any time because he was pardoned by President Donald Trump in December 2020.
The pardon followed a letter from former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith, who criticized the prosecutors and advised that the case should have resulted in a civil penalty rather than criminal charges. The Times of San Diego reported that the letter and Hunter's father played a role in the decision to grant the pardon. The next day, Trump also pardoned Hunter's wife. Among Margaret's criminal charges was attending, at campaign expense, the First Lady's Luncheon, hosted by the President's wife.
Early life and education
Hunter was born in San Diego, California, the son of Helynn Louise (née Layh) and Duncan Lee Hunter. He graduated from Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California, in 1994, and San Diego State University, where he earned a B.S. in information systems in 2001. During his sophomore year of college, Hunter started a web design company with a friend. After graduation, he worked in San Diego as an information technology business analyst.
Military service
After the September 11 attacks, Hunter joined the United States Marine Corps. He attended Officer Candidates School at Marine Corps Base Quantico. When he graduated in March 2002, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He subsequently served as a field artillery officer in the 1st Marine Division after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
He completed a second tour in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004, serving in Battery A, 1st Battalion, 11th Marines. During his second tour, he participated in Operation Vigilant Resolve, in which he fought in battles in Fallujah. Hunter was working in a command center on April 12, 2004, that mistakenly approved the mortar launch onto a schoolhouse in Fallujah where U.S. troops had set up a temporary base. Two U.S. Marines and an Iraqi interpreter were killed by the 81 mm mortar. Among the dozen wounded were three who were so seriously injured that they had to be medically retired.
In September 2005, Hunter was honorably discharged from active duty. After his discharge he started a residential development company.
In 2007, he was recalled to active duty and deployed to Afghanistan. He was promoted to captain during his wartime deployments as an artillery officer in 2006, and to major in 2012. Hunter remained in the Marine Corps Reserve until 2017.
In April, 2023 NPR reported that General Gregg Olsen had initially implicated Hunter in a deadly friendly fire mishap, that occurred in Iraq in 2004, but retracted the statement in a subsequent interview after secondary news sources, including the Times of San Diego had picked it up. In an updated report in the same month, NPR reported. A military investigation of the incident was never made public, nor was it released by NPR. "Olsen, who approved the mortar shot, recently reported that Duncan D. Hunter had pointed to the wrong target on a map, although that detail is not in his statement in the 2004 investigative report. As Olsen described it, Hunter's misidentification was the first step in the command center confusion that resulted in the tragedy. Yet, after this story was initially published, Olsen invited NPR back to the Pentagon for a follow-up interview and said he wanted to clarify his story about Hunter. He said it was another officer's mistake that triggered the mishap. "I didn't have it right the first time I talked to you," he said. Of Hunter Jr., he said, "I don't recall him pointing to anything."
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections 2008 On March 20, 2007, Hunter's father, Duncan Lee Hunter, announced that as part of his presidential bid he would not seek re-election to the House of Representatives in 2008, retiring from Congress after 14 terms.
After Hunter announced his candidacy for his father's seat, he was recalled by the United States Marine Corps to serve in the War in Afghanistan. On June 3, 2008, Hunter won the Republican primary with 72% of the vote in a four-candidate field and became the Republican nominee to replace his father, representing the 52nd District.
In the general election, Hunter defeated Democratic nominee Mike Lumpkin, a former Navy SEAL, 56%–39%. Hunter became the first combat veteran of either Iraq or Afghanistan to serve in the U.S. Congress; moreover, he was the first Marine to be elected who had seen combat in both conflicts.
2010 Hunter won re-election to a second term with 63% of the vote, defeating Democrat Ray Lutz and Libertarian Michael Benoit.
2012 After redistricting, Hunter's district was renumbered as the 50th District. It was pushed well to the east to cover most of inland San Diego County, while losing its share of the city of San Diego.
In the five-candidate open primary in 2012, Hunter ranked first with 67% of the vote; Democratic nominee David Secor ranked second with 17% of the vote. In the general election, Hunter defeated Secor 68%–32%. He became only the third person to represent this district since its creation after the 1960 census. Lionel Van Deerlin won the seat on its creation in 1962, and held it until the elder Hunter defeated him in 1980.
2014 In the primary election, Hunter finished first with 62,371 votes (70%) to Democrat James H. Kimber's 21,552 (24%). In the general election, Hunter defeated Kimber by 111,997 votes (71%) to 45,302 (29%).
2016 In the primary election, Hunter took 56.5% of the vote against four opponents. In the general election, he defeated Democrat Patrick Malloy, 63.9% to 36.1%.
2018
Several Democrats challenged Hunter, including Ammar Campa-Najjar and Josh Butner. Hunter was also challenged by the Republican Mayor of El Cajon, Bill Wells. In the jungle primary, Hunter received the most votes at 47.4%, followed by Campa-Najjar at 17.6%. The two faced off in the November general election.
During Hunter's 2018 re-election campaign, he repeatedly attacked his Democratic opponent Campa-Najjar over his half-Palestinian heritage. He claimed that Campa-Najjar, who converted to Christianity from Islam in high school, was an "Islamist" trying to "infiltrate Congress", describing him as a "security threat" with terrorist ties. The Washington Post fact-checkers wrote that an October 1, 2018, television ad by Hunter's campaign used "naked anti-Muslim bias" and sought to scare Californians from voting for Campa-Najjar, despite the fact that Campa-Najjar "isn't even Muslim. All the claims in the ad are false, misleading or devoid of evidence." Hunter also claimed that Campa-Najjar was being supported by CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood; PolitiFact gave this claim its "Pants on Fire" rating. CNN, The Guardian, BuzzFeed News, and The Daily Beast described Hunter's campaign as "anti-Muslim", Vox described it as "race-baiting", and The Atlantic called it "one of the most brazenly anti-Muslim smear campaigns in recent history." After Hunter's attacks on Campa-Najjar were widely condemned, Hunter doubled down on the attacks in a direct mail letter written and signed by three defense industry lobbyists, characterizing Campa-Najjar as a national security risk. Campa-Najjar described Hunter's attacks as "pathological." After the salvo of criticism protesting Hunter's accusation of Campa-Najjar's funding from extremist Muslim groups, The San Diego Union Tribune reported that while CAIR, The Council on American Islamic Relations, had not organizationally contributed to Campa-Najjar, seven members of CAIR's board of directors and staff had contributed US$17,300 to Campa-Najjar. The San Diego Union Tribune further reported, "CAIR was found to have ties to Hamas, the Palestine-Islamic resistance organization. .
Hunter ultimately won with 51.7% of the vote, the closest race in the district since his father's initial run for what was then the 42nd District in 1980, when he unseated longtime Democratic incumbent Lionel Van Deerlin with 53 percent of the vote. In the four decades since then, a Democrat had only managed more than 40 percent of the vote in 1992, when the elder Hunter was held to 52.8 percent of the vote. Although the district is normally considered safely Republican, as evidenced by Hunter's previous wide margins of victory, the election was relatively close largely due to Hunter's indictment. He was left as one of only three Republicans representing a district south of Bakersfield, the others being Paul Cook and Ken Calvert.
Tenure According to GovTrack, Duncan Hunter was ranked the 3rd top leader among the 53 members of the California congressional delegation during the 113th Congress in 2014. He was also ranked the 4th most politically right-leaning among the same group. He received bipartisan cosponsors on the 7th highest percentage of bills compared to all 435 members of the House. GovTrack noted that 78% of Hunter's 23 bills and resolutions had both Democratic and Republican cosponsors.
In the 114th Congress, GovTrack lowered Hunter's leadership ranking within the California delegation from 3rd to 9th. However, he remained active in other categories such as receiving the bipartisan cosponsors on the 2nd most bills among California members.
Hunter also ranked 30th among 248 House Republicans for obtaining influential cosponsors. GovTrack noted that seven of Hunter's bills and resolutions in the 114th Congress had a sponsor who was either a chair or ranking member of a committee relevant to the bill's subject matter.
Four of Hunter's bills were classified as maritime-related. These coincided with his role as chair of the Coast Guard Subcommittee, where he supported Coast Guard funding. However, one of his most publicized legislative efforts involved the naming of a U.S. Navy ship.
In 2011, Hunter introduced a bill directing the Secretary of the Navy to name a ship after Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta. During the battle of Fallujah, Sgt. Peralta was mortally wounded and covered a grenade with his body, saving fellow Marines. He was nominated for the Medal of Honor, but the award was downgraded to the Navy Cross. Then–Secretary of Defense Robert Gates followed Pentagon recommendations that Peralta's head injury had likely rendered him incapable of conscious action.