Former Rep. Will Hurd (R) Tosses His Hat Into 2024 Presidential Race

Politico Playbook has the news that former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) has joined the ever-growing field of Republican candidates for the 2020 presidential campaign. He first came on my radar in 2017 when he and Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke took a bipartisan road trip to D.C. (Time).

Former Rep. WILL HURD (R-Texas) jumped into the Republican presidential primary today, becoming the 13th or 14th (depending on whom you count) major candidate in the very crowded field.

… Hurd casts himself as a common-sense purveyor of solutions: “It’s not a given that this vision for America will happen, but it can if we focus on our timeless principles and limitless potential, not self-interested politics.”

It’s a message, and a candidate, from a different time in Republican politics. Hurd was seen as a rising GOP star just a few years ago. A moderate, Black former CIA agent who represented a majority-Hispanic swing district on the Texas border, Hurd stood out in Congress for his bipartisan chops and tech/cyber expertise. Chatter grew about a run for higher office in his future.

Then Trump transformed the GOP, and Hurd opted not to run for reelection in 2020.

Now he enters the race as a significant long shot, to be kind. But Hurd could still be one to watch — as one of the few candidates offering a genuinely different ideological perspective and perhaps just the second, behind CHRIS CHRISTIE, willing to criticize Trump directly. His video calls Trump “a lawless, selfish, failed politician” who would lose to Biden again.

Hurd is a good guy and would be welcomed by those of us looking for normalcy. However, those of us craving the normal Republican Party of the past are few and far between. I admire his tenacity and perhaps one of these days the normal mainstream Republicans will come forward to fight against the MAGAs who have destroyed the GOP’s reputation.