Former Texas congressman Will Hurd, a onetime CIA officer and fierce critic of Donald Trump, announced on Thursday that he is running for president, hoping to build momentum as a more moderate alternative to the Republican primary field’s early frontrunner.
Hurd, who made the announcement on CBS Mornings, served three terms in the House through January 2021, becoming the chamber’s only Black Republican during his final two years in office. He said in a video launching his White House bid that the “soul of our country is under attack”, reminiscent of Democrat Joe Biden’s slogan about the 2020 race being a “battle for the soul of the nation”.
“Our enemies plot, create chaos, and threaten the American dream. At home, illegal immigration and fentanyl stream into our country. Inflation, still out of control. Crime and homelessness growing in our cities,” Hurd says in the video. “President Biden can’t solve these problems – or won’t. 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.”
Democrats won control of the House in 2018 and the Senate in 2020 but saw the GOP narrowly retake the House majority during last year’s midterms.
Hurd has long struck a similar tone. He tweeted last summer that “the GOP can’t build sustainable majorities if our candidates are praising Hitler on the radio, getting arrested by the FBI for participating in the insurrection or being evaluated solely on their loyalty to the guy who lost the last election.”
Although Hurd is no fan of Trump, he also has been critical of Biden, telling NBC’s Meet the Press in May that the prospect of another election pitting the current president against the former one would be “the rematch from hell”.
Hurd has visited Iowa and New Hampshire in recent months, and those close to him said he was seriously mulling a presidential run since early spring. Trump’s recent indictment on federal felony charges for mishandling classified documents could potentially open the way for critics like Hurd to gain traction in the primary.
Hurd joins a crowded primary field with Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, activist Vivek Ramaswamy, radio host Larry Elder and Miami mayor Francis Suarez, in addition to Trump.
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