William Ballard Hurd (born August 19, 1977) is an American politician and former CIA clandestine officer who served as the U.S. representative for from 2015 to 2021.
Following a nine-year stint with the CIA, Hurd ran for Congress in 2010 and was defeated in a runoff primary. Hurd ran for Congress again in 2014 and was successful. The district stretched approximately from San Antonio to El Paso along the U.S.-Mexican border. He was re-elected in 2016 and again in 2018, but did not seek re-election in 2020.
On June 22, 2023, Hurd announced that he was seeking the Republican nomination for president of the United States in the 2024 election. He dropped out of the race on October 9, 2023, and endorsed Nikki Haley.
Early life and education Hurd was born on August 19, 1977, in San Antonio, Texas. He is the son of Mary Alice Hurd and Robert Hurd. He has a brother, Chuck, and a sister, Elizabeth. His father is black and his mother is white.
Hurd is a graduate of John Marshall High School in Leon Valley, Texas, and a graduate of Texas A&M University, where he was elected student body president. Hurd was student body president during the 1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse. He majored in computer science and minored in international relations.
Intelligence career Hurd worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for nine years, from 2000 to 2009. He was stationed primarily in Washington, D.C., but his tour of duty included being an operations officer in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. He speaks Urdu, the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan, where he worked undercover. One of his roles at the CIA was briefing members of Congress, which is what made Hurd want to pursue politics. He returned to Texas after his CIA service and worked as a partner with Crumpton Group LLC, a strategic advisory firm, and as a senior adviser with FusionX, a cybersecurity firm.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections 2010
On November 19, 2009, Hurd announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in Texas's 23rd congressional district, a district that is two-thirds Hispanic. His electronically filed campaign finance records indicated he had $70,000 on hand to fund his campaign.
On February 15, 2010, the San Antonio Express-News endorsed Hurd. In the March 2 primary election he received the most votes, but not a majority, resulting in a runoff election on April 13, 2010. Hurd faced the second-place finisher, Francisco "Quico" Canseco, a San Antonio banker who was making his third bid for Congress. Canseco defeated Hurd in the runoff, 53% to 47%. Canseco won the general election against two-term incumbent Democrat Ciro Rodriguez, but lost reelection in 2012 to Alpine Democrat Pete Gallego by a margin of 2,500 votes.
2014
Hurd once again ran for the 23rd district in the 2014 United States House of Representatives elections. After a runoff, he won the primary over Canseco. In the general election, Hurd defeated Gallego, making this the third consecutive election cycle in the district in which an incumbent was unseated. The San Antonio Express-News again endorsed Hurd. Even though Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had carried the district two years earlier, the result was considered an upset. Hurd conducted a post-election swing through some parts of his district that had heavily supported Gallego. He was also the only candidate ever to be endorsed by former CIA director and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who admired Hurd's work at the CIA and was disappointed by his departure to run for public office. Gates said that Hurd "has the character and the integrity and the leadership skills for higher office".
2016
Hurd was renominated for a second term in the Republican primary election held on March 1, 2016, in which he defeated William Peterson, with 39,762 votes (82.2%) to 8,590 (17.8%). Former Congressman Pete Gallego was his opponent again and the race was expected to be one of the most competitive in the country. After the primary, Hurd distanced himself from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. He criticized Trump's "nasty rhetoric" about Muslims and Latinos and his proposal to build an $8 billion, wall across the American border with Mexico. Hurd described the proposal as "the most expensive, least effective way to do border security". He stated that he did not need to associate himself with Trump to succeed.
During the campaign, Gallego attempted to tie Hurd to Trump, who was considered unpopular with Texas Hispanics. After the Access Hollywood tape was released, Hurd affirmed that he would not endorse or vote for Trump, based on Trump's behavior toward women and minorities. Hurd claimed that Gallego had been insufficiently aggressive in support for veteran issues and was largely a tool of Nancy Pelosi, at that time the House minority leader.
In the general election Hurd defeated Gallego, 110,577 votes (48.3%) to 107,526 (47%), with Libertarian Ruben Schmidt Corvalan of San Antonio earning the remaining 10,862 (4.7%). Hurd ran sufficiently well in the Bexar County portion of the district and in nearby Medina and Uvalde counties to offset Gallego's large margins in El Paso and Maverick counties, the latter of which encompasses the border city of Eagle Pass.
2018
On March 7, 2018, Hurd won the GOP primary with 80% of the vote. No candidate won a majority of the vote in the Democratic primary in his district, forcing a runoff between former Air Force intelligence officer Gina Ortiz Jones and high-school teacher Rick Trevino. Ortiz Jones won the runoff.
In July 2018, it was reported that the election was on track to become "the most expensive congressional race in the state's history".
The race was the closest House race in Texas and one of the closest in the country. The Associated Press initially called it for Hurd on election night, but an additional batch of votes temporarily gave Ortiz Jones a small lead, which Hurd then regained. After all provisional and overseas ballots were counted, Hurd was declared the official winner on November 19 by a margin of 926 votes.
Tenure Hurd assumed office as a U.S. representative on January 3, 2015. During his first term, he ranked third among freshman House members who had the most bills passed. Much of Hurd's work focused on bipartisan cybersecurity and technology bills. Hurd has been described as a leading congressional voice on technology issues.
In July 2015, Hurd was named to replace Aaron Schock of Illinois as a co-chair of the Congressional Future Caucus, along with Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. 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 that focuses in part on cybersecurity), which is unusual for a first-term member of Congress.Marks, Michael (January 7, 2015) - "Freshman Texans to Lead High-Tech Subcommittees" . Dallas Morning News. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
Hurd was the vice-chair of the Border and Maritime Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee. He was appointed to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for his second term, replacing Mike Pompeo, who departed to head the CIA. Hurd's background as a former undercover clandestine officer led The Daily Dot to call him "The Most Interesting Man in Congress".
Along with Brian Fitzpatrick, John Katko, and Elise Stefanik, Hurd was considered one of the most moderate Republicans in the House. He voted against his party's positions on LGBT rights, gun control, immigration, repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and congressional oversight, and he received praise for his bipartisanship. Hurd was a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership.
As of August 2019, Hurd was the only black Republican in the House of Representatives. He has said that the principal role of the government in the lives of African Americans should be to empower them to do things for themselves.
According to USA Today, Hurd's district "spans two time zones and more than 800 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border". As of January 2019, Hurd was the only Republican member of Congress representing a district along the U.S.–Mexican border.
In 2019, Hurd joined the Transatlantic Task Force of the German Marshall Fund and the Bundeskanzler-Helmut-Schmidt-Stiftung (BKHS), co-chaired by Karen Donfried and Wolfgang Ischinger.The German Marshall Fund and Bundeskanzler-Helmut-Schmidt-Stiftung Launch “Transatlantic Task Force” Setting Path Forward for U.S.-Europe Relations German Marshall Fund, press release of December 12, 2019.
On August 1, 2019, Hurd did not seek reelection to Congress in 2020.
Caucus memberships
Congressional Future Caucus (co-chair)
Committee assignments
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Information Technology Subcommittee (chair) Homeland Security Committee Border and Maritime Subcommittee (vice-chair) House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Political positions In 2015, Hurd voted 96% with his party's position on roll-call votes.Filipa Ioannou, "Gallego's claim on Hurd's voting record proves true," San Antonio Express-News, November 15, 2015, pp. 1, A17 As of August 2019, he had voted with his party in 82% of votes in the 116th United States Congress and in line with Trump's position in 81.3% of votes. Hurd is frequently described as a moderate Republican.
2011 congressional district map In March 2017, a three-member panel of federal judges invalidated the Texas State Legislature's 2011 drawing of three congressional districts (Hurd's 23rd district, the 27th district, and the 35th district), finding that Texas had intentionally discriminated against blacks and Latinos in violation of either the U.S. Constitution or the Voting Rights Act. Hurd's election victory occurred using a court-approved 2013 interim map that differed from the 2011 map. The San Antonio Express-News editorial board wrote that "partisan motivations" influenced the drawing of the lines for the U.S. House seats by the Republican majority in the Texas state legislature.Obviously, district maps' intent was to discriminate (editorial), San Antonio Express-News, March 17, 2017, p. A10. Hurd staunchly defended his district's boundaries.Jeremy Gerlach, "Hurd defends district boundaries: He's last state witness in remapping trial," San Antonio Express-News, July 16, 2017, p. A3. Hurd added that a revised district plan would not affect his work in Congress or his hopes of winning a third term in 2018.Guillermo Contreras and Bill Lambrecht, "Race seen as fueling redrawing of districts", San Antonio Express-News, March 12, 2017, pp. 1, 18.
Bipartisanship Allegheny College gave the 2018 Prize for Civility in Public Life to Hurd and Beto O'Rourke, a Texas Democrat. In March 2017, facing snowstorm-induced flight cancellations, Hurd and O'Rourke, both stuck in San Antonio, needed to get back to Washington for a House vote. They rented a car and embarked on a drive that they captured on Facebook Live. Hurd and O'Rourke worked together on legislation subsequent to the road trip.
In 2019, Hurd was one of eight House Republicans who voted in favor of the Equality Act, which would provide federal non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans.
Fiscal policy In 2019, Hurd was one of seven Republicans to break with the Trump administration position and vote with Democrats to end a government shutdown.
Foreign policy and national security Hurd called for a ramp-up of U.S. military action against ISIS in Libya and in Syria, using the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan as a model. He blamed ISIL's rise on the Obama administration, accusing it of underestimating the threat. Hurd has written that Islamic extremists "are in it for the long haul, which means that we have to be also". On the broader Syrian civil war, Hurd has written that "the brutal dictator Bashar al-Asad must go".