Will Hurd Isn't Running For Re-election

Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) is the latest House Republican to announce that he won’t seek reelection in 2020. Hurd won his 2018 election against Democratic challenger Gina Ortiz Jones by fewer than 1,000 votes.

“After reflecting on how best to help our country address these challenges, I have made the decision to not seek reelection for the 23rd Congressional District of Texas in order to pursue opportunities outside the halls of Congress to solve problems at the nexus between technology and national security,” Hurd said in a statement on Thursday night.

Hurd, who previously worked for the CIA, was first elected in 2015. He serves on the House Appropriations and Intelligence committees. He is the only black Republican congressman.

Hurd is the ninth Republican to announce his retirement this week and the third member of the Texas delegation, according to The Washington Post. The Texas 23rd Congressional District is an oddly drawn district of more than 58,000 miles and runs for nearly 600 miles along the Texas-Mexico border between El Paso and Laredo while also managing to encircle San Antonio to the north.

Hurd’s relationships with the head of the Republican Party has been mostly a battle of words with little to back it up. He said he wouldn’t vote for Donald Trump when the now-infamous pussy tape surfaced.

Now, Hurd said he would still vote for Trump in a reelection campaign in 2020, despite his criticism of Trump’s racist comments against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). “When you imply that because someone doesn’t look like you, in telling them to go back to Africa or wherever, you’re implying that they’re not an American and you’re implying that they have less worth than you,” Hurd told The Washington Post.

But it looks like Hurd won’t stay out of politics once his term ends. He alludes to helping America in “a different way” in his statement and staying involved in Republican politics. In fact, the Post reports that Hurd has made trips to early voting states like New Hampshire and Iowa, which makes sense if he wants to run for president in 2024 or so. Personally, I refuse to consider a presidential election that far in advance until we at least get through the Iowa caucuses in February.