Will Hurd, a moderate Texas Republican and Trump critic, announces run for president
The former member of the U.S. House will likely be the highest-profile Texan to enter the 2024 race, but he’ll be a major underdog.
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Former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, announced Thursday he is running for president, becoming the first Texan with experience in elective office to enter the Republican primary.
Hurd, who represented Texas in Congress from 2015-21, begins his campaign as a major underdog. He is an unabashed moderate and a Donald Trump critic in a party where many remain loyal to the former president and frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Hurd revealed his decision in a Thursday morning interview on CBS and followed it up online with an announcement video that began with Hurd listing illegal immigration, inflation and other problems before addressing the current and former presidents.
“President [Joe] Biden can’t solve these problems — or won’t,” Hurd 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.”
If Donald Trump becomes the GOP presidential nominee in 2024, he won’t have at least one of his opponents’ blessing.
“I’m not going to support Donald Trump,” former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Thursday night, straying from other candidates who’ve said they’ll support whoever becomes the Republican nominee.
The comment came when Hurd was asked whether he would sign the Republican National Committee-issued pledge to support the party’s presidential nominee, as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson have said they would.
The former lawmaker took it a step further, saying Trump “100 percent” betrayed the nation if the allegations of Trump mishandling sensitive U.S. intelligence are true — stressing that he is innocent until proven guilty.
Hurd, a moderate who announced his candidacy on Thursday, is likely a longshot in the already-crowded GOP presidential race. He has been a longtime critic of the former president, having called the “border crisis” a “myth,” opposed the Trump administration’s border wall and supported a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers.
