Former Republican Texas Rep. Will Hurd has entered the 2024 presidential race, widening the busy field packed with high-profile GOP members.
Hurd announced his campaign on CBS Mornings on Thursday morning, casting himself as a “commonsense Republican” who will appeal to swing voters. He is now the 11th GOP candidate to enter the primary in a bid for the White House.
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The Texas representative was first elected to Congress in 2014 after he beat out the Democratic incumbent by a narrow margin. He, like many congressional Republicans, retired before the 2020 election.
Hurd said he decided to enter the race after he and his wife realized “we live in complicated times.”
“I believe the Republican Party can be the party that talks about the future, not the past,” Hurd said. “We should be putting out a vision of how do we have unprecedented peace, how do we have a thriving economy, how do we make sure our kids have a world-class education, regardless of their age and location? We can do this. It’s hard. But here’s one thing I’ve learned: If we remember two things, we can pull this off. America is better together. Way more unites us than divides us.”
Hurd will face off against high-profile Republicans such as former President Donald Trump; Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL); Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC); Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND); former Govs. Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, and Chris Christie; and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, among others.
Trump is the GOP front-runner in most polls, with a recent CBS News poll showing him holding 62% of the vote. However, his support has slowly dwindled since April, coinciding with his criminal indictment out of Manhattan and a federal indictment from the Department of Justice.
DeSantis is making headway in the polls, showing a 5-point increase in support from April, according to a June 19-20 Emerson College poll. DeSantis also leads Trump in some battleground states.
In his campaign video, “Common Sense in Complicated Times,” Hurd mentioned only two 2024 presidential candidates: President Joe Biden and Trump. Hurd spoke last week with voters in New Hampshire, a key battleground state for 2024, saying the election needs to be about removing Biden, not reinstalling Trump as president.
“Republicans deserve better, America deserves better,” Hurd said in his video. “It’s common sense. Common sense says we’re better together.”
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Hurd called the former president a “lawless, selfish, failed politician” and said Biden cannot solve the problems facing everyday people, citing illegal and “out of control” immigration, fentanyl, crime, and homelessness.
“This moment, this election, has never mattered more,” Hurd said. “That’s why I’m running for the Republican nomination for president of the United States.”
