Will Hurd

Will Hurd
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 23rd district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2015
Preceded by	Pete Gallego
Personal details
Born	(1977-08-19) August 19, 1977 San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Residence	Helotes, Texas, U.S.
Alma mater	Texas A&M University, (B.S.) (2000)
Known for	CIA, member of the U.S. House of Representatives

William Ballard "Will" Hurd (born August 19, 1977) is an American politician who is the U.S. Representative for Texas's 23rd congressional district, a district which stretches eight hundred miles, from San Antonio to El Paso, along the U.S.-Mexican border.^[1] He took office on January 3, 2015. Hurd is the first black Republican elected to Congress from Texas.^[1][2]

Early years

Hurd is the son of Robert and Mary Alice Hurd of San Antonio. He is a graduate of John Marshall High School in the San Antonio suburb of Leon Valley, Texas.^[3] After high school Hurd attended Texas A&M and served as the Student Body President in 1999 at the time of the Aggie Bonfire collapse.^[4] He graduated from A&M in 2000 with a degree in computer science and a minor in international relations.^[4]

Hurd worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for nine years, stationed in Washington, D.C., including a tour of duty as an operations officer in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.^[4][3] He speaks Urdu,^[5] the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan, where Hurd worked undercover.^[5]

One of his roles at the CIA was briefing members of Congress, many of whom could not distinguish the Sunni and Shia divide at the center of Islamic civil wars for centuries.^[6] This lack of understanding by members of Congress made Hurd want to pursue politics.^[6]

He returned to Texas after his CIA service and worked for Crumpton Group, strategic advisory firm, as a partner and a senior adviser with the cybersecurity firm FusionX.^[4] He currently lives in Helotes, a suburb of San Antonio.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2010

Hurd announced his candidacy on November 19, 2009, for the Republican nomination in Texas's 23rd congressional district, a district which is two-thirds Hispanic.^[5][7][8] His electronically filed campaign finance records indicated that he had $70,000 on hand to fund his attempt.^[9]

On February 15, 2010, Hurd received the endorsement of the San Antonio Express-News.^[10] In the primary election on March 2, 2010, he received the greatest number of votes but failed to receive a majority of the votes cast, resulting in a run-off election on April 13, 2010.^[11][12] He faced second-place finisher Francisco "Quico" Canseco, a San Antonio banker, formerly from Laredo, who made his third attempt at a congressional seat.^[11] Hurd lost to Canseco in the runoff 53 to 47 percent. Canseco ultimately won the general election but lost after one term in 2012.

2014

Hurd once again ran for the 23rd district in the United States House of Representatives elections, 2014. He defeated former U.S. Representative Quico Canseco, who had lost re-election in 2012, and defeated incumbent Democrat Pete Gallego of Alpine by 2,500 votes.^[4] He was endorsed by the San Antonio Express-News.^[4]

He did a post-election swing through some parts of his district that had heavily favored the incumbent Gallego in the voting.^[13]

2016

Hurd was handily re-nominated for a second term in the Republican primary election held on March 1, 2016. He defeated William "Hart" Peterson, 39,762 votes (82.2 percent) to 8,590 (17.8 percent).^[14] After winning re-nomination, Hurd began to distance himself from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. He opposed Trump's "nasty rhetoric" in reference to Muslims and Latinos and the candidate's proposal to build an $8 billion, 1,000-mile long wall across the American border with Mexico. "Building a wall is the most expensive, least-effective way to do border security," Hurd said in an interview. Hurd said he did not need coattails from his party's presidential nominee: "Anybody who is hoping on coattails or macro trends, is not doing his job."^[15]

In the general election, Hurd faced a rematch with his predecessor, Democrat Pete Gallego. Hurd defeated Gallego with 48.5% of the vote to Gallego's 46.8%, a 3,767 vote difference.^[16]

Tenure

As with the other congressional freshmen, Hurd's term officially began on January 3, 2015, and he was sworn in on January 6. As of 2016 Hurd is the only member of Congress who has actively served as a CIA case officer during the War on Terrorism.^[6] In 2015, Hurd voted 96 percent with his party's position on roll-call votes.^[17]

In July 2015, Hurd was named to replace Aaron Schock of Illinois as a co-chair of the Congressional Future Caucus, along with Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.^[18]

Hurd is pro-life.^[19]

Committee assignments

In his first term in Congress, Hurd was made the chairman of the Information Technology Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (which focuses in part on cybersecurity), which is unusual for a first-term member of Congress.^[5][20]

He is vice-chair of the Border and Maritime Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee.^[21]

References

External links

• Official House website
• Campaign website
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Project Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at The Library of Congress
• Information Technology Subcommittee website
• The most interesting man in Congress