WASHINGTON — Will Hurd, a former congressman from Texas and longtime critic of ex-President Donald Trump, jumped into the 2024 race Thursday morning to challenge the Republican frontrunner as he seeks to become his party’s first Black presidential nominee.
Hurd, 45, was a former CIA officer before he won election to the House in 2014. He served three terms in Congress, but decided to not seek reelection in 2020.
Hurd, a moderate Republican and a vocal critic of former President Trump, announced his White House bid during an appearance on CBS.
“This morning I filed to be the Republican nominee for president of the United States,” Hurd said.
In a video launching his presidential campaign, Hurd said the “soul of our country is under attack” and pledged to tackle illegal immigration, inflation, crime, and homelessness.
“President Biden can’t solve these problems or won’t,” he said. And if we nominate a lawless, selfish, failed politician like Donald Trump who lost the House, the Senate and the White House, we all know Joe Biden will win again.”
“Republicans deserve better, America deserves better,” he added.
Who is Will Hurd?
Hurd was born in San Antonio, Texas, and graduated college from Texas A&M University in 2000. He majored in computer science and was elected student body president in college.
Immediately after graduating, Hurd joined the Central Intelligence Agency where he served as an undercover agent in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan for more than eight years.
As a CIA officer, Hurd occasionally briefed members of Congress on the CIA’s role in fighting the “war on terror.” This eventually led to Hurd’s own decision to enter politics after he retired from the CIA in 2009.
Hurd first ran for Congress in the 2010 election, but lost the Republican nomination in Texas’ 23rd congressional district. Four years later, Hurd ran for the same congressional seat and won the first of three terms in the House.
A longtime Trump critic
As a member of Congress, Hurd, whose district in Texas runs along much of state’s border with Mexico, offered strong criticism of Trump’s proposal for a border wall.
In a 2017 opinion article for USA TODAY, Hurd described the former president’s campaign promise to construct a border wall along the southern border as a “third century solution” to a 21st century problem. Instead, Hurd proposed a “Smart Wall” that would use the latest available technology.
“A physical wall would not have prevented the Zeta cartel from smuggling some of those people across the river on rafts,” Hurd wrote in 2017. “On the other hand, a Smart Wall could have detected the crossing and followed the individuals until they were safely apprehended by agents.”
Despite voting against Trump’s first impeachment, Hurd still offered criticism of the former president’s alleged actions to influence the 2020 presidential election.
“You can vote against impeachment and still disagree with some of the policies or some of the behavior,” Hurd told CNN.
He also took aim at Trump during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“This is an attack on our democracy and domestic terrorism to try to stop certifying elections,” Hurd wrote in a tweet. “This should be treated as a coup led by a president that will not be peacefully removed from power.”
Taking fire from the left and the right
Hurd joins 11 other candidates in a crowded Republican field seeking the 2024 presidential nomination. But the newest 2024 hopeful has already made himself stand out with his criticism of Trump.
Before Hurd entered the race, only former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson were willing to repeatedly criticize the former president and 2024 Republican frontrunner.
Hurd said in his interview with CBS that there is a path to the nomination for a Trump critic and a “dark horse candidate” like himself.
“You can’t be afraid of Donald Trump,” Hurd said. “Too many of these candidates in this race are afraid of Donald Trump.”
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Make America Great Again Inc., suggested Hurd’s entrance into the race was less about Trump and more a reflection on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 bid.
“Let’s be honest, Never-Trumper Will Hurd wouldn’t even consider getting in this race if Ron DeSantis’ campaign wasn’t in total free fall,” Leavitt wrote. “Hurd’s entry means nothing for President Trump’s standing, but means everything for Ron DeSantis, further underscoring how far Ron’s star has fallen.”
Hurd, who has boasted of his reputation as a bipartisan lawmaker, also drew criticism from the Democrats following his campaign launch.
Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison, however, said in a statement that Hurd “spent his career in Congress in lockstep with Donald Trump’s extreme MAGA agenda.”
“The GOP primary field is overflowing with MAGA Republicans desperate to win over the right-wing fringes, and Hurd is just the latest entrant into an incredibly chaotic and extreme 2024 field,” Harrison said.
Hurd also addressed Trump’s indictment earlier this month related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents recovered from the former president’s Florida resort.
“Donald Trump knew the kinds of information that he had and when you look at the classifications of these documents, these are information that if it got in the wrong hands, would lead to a loss of life,” Hurd said. “The fact that Donald Trump willingly kept that material and he wants to be the leader of the free world is unacceptable to me.”
Hurd said that, if elected, he would not pardon Trump.
“People that are talking about pardoning him right now — when the case hasn’t even started — is insane to me,” he said.
