Will Hurd recently told a crowd at TribFest, the festival put on by Texas Tribune, that he was interested in running for President in 2024.
I have two words for him:
Stay gone.
The Era of Trump has revealed a sleight of mouth by which many long-time Republicans have decided to operate for their own political survival. On one hand, they amplify messages that sound “sufficiently” critical of Trump by calling what he says “concerning” or even “alarming” or denouncing some of his more blatantly horrible ideas, such as building a wall. On the other hand, they continue to vote lockstep with him at least 90% of the time and even endorse his candidacy for President (or use slippery language to make it appear as though they don’t endorse him by talking out of both sides of their mouths).
Ben Sasse, Paul Ryan, and Jeff Flake are some of the most well-known cases of such Trojan Resistance to the Trump Regime. Sasse most recently stated that the whistleblower report was “troubling”, the most recent in a long line of pseudo critical commentary from the senator. Ryan-who ludicrously said in the lead up to the 2016 election that he would “support but not endorse” Trump, is now a FOX flapping jaw and went so far as to release a statement claiming he wants to use his new pulpit to “rein in Trump” (apparently Speaker of the House was, in his eyes, not a powerful enough pedestal to get the job done, but blowing hot air on FOX is an effective way to counteract a chaotic, out-of-control White House. I must have missed the part of the Constitution that endowed FOX pundits with such power and so handcuffed the third-in-line to the presidency). And Flake… well, he cryptically warned us of the dangers of authoritarianism… as he slithered into retirement.
Hurd fits neatly into the cleanup slot of Team Spineless. Exhibit A: He retired. Hurd won reelection by one of the slimmest margins of any House rep in the country last cycle. He managed to hang on against a righteous onslaught of left-leaning grassroots support. Yet as soon as the Democrats reclaimed the House, Hurd headed for the exits. Somehow, he seems to believe jumping ship when the waters get choppy makes you qualified to helm the world’s largest boat during the most difficult storms.
Hurd also still licks Trump’s boots. In March of 2019, Hurd said he would “vote for Donald Trump over Beto O’Rourke” (guess their little buddy-buddy bipartisan road trip and Beto’s decision not to endorse against Hurd didn’t exactly do Beto any favors in his run for President, huh?). In July of 2019, Hurd called the President’s tweets telling The Squad to “go home” were “racist and xenophobic”… right before confirming he would “support the Republican nominee.” Hurd recently called Trump’s Ukraine phone call “disturbing”, but don’t hold your breath waiting for him to do something about it. In the last Congressional session, Hurd voted with Trump 95% of the time.
If Hurd begins to ramp up a campaign for President ahead of 2024-or any other office in any other future election for that matter-Texans should find him at every town hall he holds and hammer him with the same question that should be asked of almost the entire current GOP should they seek higher office:
Why should we promote someone who was too chicken to stand up to Trump and supported his authoritarian agenda?
The answer is simple:
We shouldn’t.