WASHINGTON – Rep. Will Hurd, the only black Republican in the House of Representatives, said he’s retiring from Congress to work toward diversifying the party.
“I’m interested in helping other candidates like me,” the Texas lawmaker said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I want to see a Republican Party that has more folks that look and sound and operate like I do.”
Hurd name-dropped Wesley Hunt, a black Republican running to take back a seat representing a part of Houston that Democrats won in 2018.
Hurd suggested he’d help Hunt win that race.
“Congressman, you know the way to do that is to stay, to raise money, to campaign alongside and say, ‘He’s joining me’ not ‘I’m leaving and he needs to replace me,’ ” pointed out CBS News’ Major Garrett.
Hurd disagreed, saying that the “end all or be all” isn’t being a member of Congress.
���The party is defined by the people who are in it, not necessarily the politicians,” Hurd said. “And so this gives me the freedom and flexibility to operate in other parts of the country.”
Hurd also faced another challenge in the 2020 election from Gina Ortiz Jones, whom he narrowly defeated in 2018 by just 926 votes in the district Hillary Clinton won.
His retirement will leave just one black Republican lawmaker, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), in Congress.
Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), another black Republican, lost her re-election bid in 2018.
She was critical of President Trump, which the president blamed for her loss.
“But Mia Love gave me no love, and she lost. Too bad,” the president said during a November press conference held after the midterms. “Sorry about that, Mia.”