Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd is the latest Republican to join a growing field of candidates challenging former President Donald Trump for the presidency in 2024.
As a representative of a border district and a moderate, Hurd was an outspoken critic of Trump’s immigration policies while serving in Congress. Hurd opted not to seek reelection in 2020 because he felt out of step with the hard right turn his party had taken under Trump. However, he joined his Republican colleagues in voting against Trump’s impeachment in 2019.
In a video posted to Twitter on Thursday, Hurd again denounced Trump as a “lawless, selfish, failed politician” whom he blamed for Republicans losing control of the House in 2018, as well as the Senate and the White House in 2020. But he also had sharp words for President Joe Biden’s policies on immigration, crime, and inflation: “President Biden can’t solve these problems or won’t.”
Hurd was known as a bipartisan dealmaker during his time in Congress, breaking with his party on issues such as LGBTQ rights, gun control, and its push to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But given that the Republican Party has only further dug in its heels on MAGA politics since his departure from office, it’s not clear that Republican voters are all that interested in a candidate who reaches across the aisle. Hurd will also struggle to stand out in a field already filled with big names — not to mention lesser-known candidates fighting to increase single-digit poll numbers.
Hurd’s entry nevertheless adds to the competition against Trump, whom some Republicans see as a liability in a general election. Not only is Trump the subject of several ongoing civil and criminal investigations, but he’s broadly unpopular. He lost his reelection bid in 2020, and his chosen candidates broadly underperformed in the 2022 midterms.
Still, it’s been a tough primary so far for anyone who’s not Trump. The former president, who announced his candidacy…
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