Former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd’s moderate politics didn’t find much traction in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, but he hasn’t given up his fight against hyper-partisanship.
Speaking to a leadership development group at the San Antonio Zoo on Wednesday, Hurd urged the participants to get more involved in primary elections and lend their support to elected officials who stay above the fray.
“I used to hate the phrase moderate. … It’s like, wishy washy, right? But the moderates are the ones taking the hardest vote,” said Hurd, who was elected three times in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, but didn’t garner enough support in the presidential primary to score an invitation to the debates.
” … It’s crazy that compromise and working together is a four-letter word in D.C. now, but the only way it’s going change is if y’all reward people that do that,” he said.
Even Hurd’s more conservative successor, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio), narrowly fended off a challenge from the right in last week’s primary runoff.
“For those that didn’t know, I was unsuccessful in my presidential run,” Hurd told participants in Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership San Antonio program gathered at the zoo’s Hippo Viewing Cave. “That’s why I’m here talking to y’all and not in Michigan kissing babies and slapping backs.”
Still, the 46-year-old hasn’t given up on GOP centrists.
After dropping out of the presidential race in October, he endorsed former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and went on to do consulting work for her campaign, he said in a brief interview Wednesday. (Haley suspended her own campaign in March after trailing former President Donald Trump badly in the early states.)
Hurd is also teaching as a spring 2024 fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics.
His speech Wednesday focused on promoting civic engagement and mitigating the impact low-turnout primaries are having on partisanship.
“We will return to civility, … but it’s going to be brutal getting there,” said Hurd, who famously road-tripped from San Antonio to D.C. with Democrat Beto O’Rourke in 2017 when snow cancelled the then-congressmen’s flights.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better, in my opinion, and part of the reason is most politicians want to do the least amount of work possible to achieve the result of staying in their position of power,” he said.
Hurd also encouraged future leaders not to shy away from tough conversations.
“It’s real easy to go to the Dominion and talk about fiscal responsibility and tax code,” he told the group, referring to a wealthy enclave in Northwest San Antonio.
“Go to El Paso or Eagle Pass and talk about some conservative message. That was what I had to do, and it forced me to try to figure out where we all can agree,” he said.
Hurd grew up in Leon Valley. He said Wednesday that he currently resides in Helotes, where he’s been living for roughly nine years. He also got married roughly a year and a half ago, to Lynlie Wallace Hurd, who ran unsuccessfully for San Antonio City Council in District 9 in 2017.
“He and Lynlie make just the All-American couple, it’s kind of disgusting,” joked Jeff Webster, President and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, who introduced Hurd at the event. “They’re beautiful, smart and have a world by the tail.”
