Dumping Trump could save key GOP seat

Freshman Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, has worked hard to distance himself from Donald Trump while maintaining his relationships with GOP colleagues. After The Washington Post leaked an 11-year-old video of Trump making lewd remarks about sexual assault, Hurd officially dumped Trump, possibly boosting his reelection chances in one of the GOP’s most vulnerable races.

“I never endorsed Trump, and I cannot in good conscience support or vote for a man who degrades women, insults minorities, and has no clear path to keep our country safe,” Hurd told the El Paso Times after the video surfaced last weekend. “He should step aside for a true conservative to beat Hillary Clinton.”

Texas’ 23rd Congressional District has split evenly for years, flipping between parties in each election since 2010. Hurd won in 2014 by less than 2,500 votes over then-incumbent Pete Gallego to become the first African-American Republican to represent Texas in Washington. In 2012, Gallego won the seat for Democrats, but the same voters gave a slight 5,000 vote edge to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama. This year, most pollsters show the rematch between Hurd and Gallego as a toss-up.

The district, which is 70 percent Hispanic, stretches over 800 miles of southwest Texas from the outskirts of San Antonio to El Paso along the U.S.-Mexican border; it’s geographically larger than 23 states.

When Trump won the Republican nomination, Gallego began spending advertising dollars linking Hurd to Trump’s immigration policies and incendiary comments about Mexicans.

From the beginning, Hurd criticized Trump’s idea to build a wall at the U.S. southern border. He told the San Antonio Express-News in March, “Building a wall is the most expensive, least effective way to do border security.”

Yet Hurd’s unwillingness to completely reject Trump gave Gallego firepower. But now that Hurd will no longer defend the top of the GOP ticket, Republicans might be able to hold on to his seat. A July poll by Anzalone Liszt Grove showed 58 percent of voters in the district viewed Trump unfavorably, a negative perception that jumped to 73 percent among Hispanic voters.

Hurd stands out among his colleagues. The 6-foot-4 former high school basketball player is the only former CIA operations officer in the House. Before running for office, Hurd spent nine years as an undercover agent with the CIA in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, New York, and Washington, D.C., and went on to work at a cybersecurity firm.

His intelligence experience allowed him to be the first chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Information Technology, which focuses on issues such as encryption and advancing legislation on IT modernization. The 39-year-old is one of the few members of Congress with practical intelligence experience and an interest in jargon-rich technology policy.

“There are only a handful of congressmen that understand tech, and he’s one of them,” Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, told FedScoop. “He hit the ground running faster than almost any freshman I’ve seen.”

Since joining Congress in 2015, Hurd has passed 10 bills, most dealing with cybersecurity and technology, five of which became law.

Hurd said political ignorance of technological issues encouraged him to run for public office in the first place.

The freshman lawmaker garnered the national spotlight this summer during an exchange with FBI Director James Comey at a House Oversight hearing regarding the decision not to prosecute former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information.

“I’m offended,” Hurd said after listening to Democrats say the investigation was just “political theater” during the five-hour hearing.

“I spent 9 1/2 years as an undercover officer in the CIA. I was the guy in the back alleys, collecting intelligence, passing it to lawmakers. I’ve seen my friends killed. I’ve seen assets put in harm’s way,” Hurd said. “What does it take for someone to misuse classified information and get in trouble for it?”

Republican donors have invested heavily in Hurd’s reelection campaign. According to The Center for Responsive Politics, Hurd has nearly a million dollars more in his war chest than Gallego.

After months of reluctant support for Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told the Republican conference this week he would no longer defend Trump and members should do whatever was needed win back their districts. Ryan plans to join Hurd in Texas to aid in his campaign later this month.