The announcements come everyday…
A Republican says they will not run next year….
It’s Donald Trump’s party now…
And they want no part of that…….
Nancy Pelosi HAS to be smiling ….
For all of the attention on the divided Democrats on display at this week’s presidential debates, the GOP might have received worse news on Thursday.
Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, announced he won’t seek re-election in 2020 – the biggest House GOP retirement since Paul Ryan’s in 2018.
It’s also the sixth House GOP retirement in just the last two weeks, per NBC’s Alex Moe.
Why the Hurd news is significant:
- It makes it much more likely the GOP will lose the district in 2020 (Hillary Clinton carried it in ’16); the Cook Political Report has already moved it to Lean D.
- It makes it that much harder for the GOP to win control of Congress – Republicans need to flip 18 seats, and losing Hurd’s TX-23 district raises the number to 19.
- Like Ryan’s announcement in 2018, it sends the message to GOP donors and potential recruits that flipping the House might be out of reach for Republicans.
- It eliminates more diversity for the GOP — Hurd was the sole African-American member of the House Republican caucus.
- And when it comes to the immigration debate, it robs the GOP of their only member representing a district on the U.S.-Mexico border.
But there’s an even more significant story going on here: The non-Trump wing of the Republican Party wants out.
Think about the other GOP retirements we’ve seen — Reps. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., Martha Roby, R-Ala., and now Hurd.
And these Republicans parachuting out of the Republican Party underscore how vulnerable Trump really is, despite the growing economy.
The fewer Will Hurd-like members running in 2020 reduces the number of moderate/non-Trump Republicans who would eagerly go to the polls for those representatives – and then still hold their nose and vote for the president.
The Republican Party is getting smaller and smaller, and that isn’t good news for an incumbent Republican president….
Hurd went so far as to say that he thought the Democrats might take Texas in 2020.
I don’t see that happening ,although he is correct that the fastest growing voting groups there are Hispanics and Blacks.
I still see true Democratic competitiveness there five or so years down the road but Hurd certainly knows more about Texas than I do.
I hope he’s right and I’m wrong!
There are rumors here in Missouri that Rep Ann Wagner who barely held her suburban St. Louis seat last year is among the House Republicans considering adding their names to the retirement list.
Not sure how credible those rumors are but another woman leaving the House and abandoning a swing district would add to Kevin McCarthy’s acid reflux.
Gonna be LOT MORE…