Will Hurd

William Ballard Hurd (born August 19, 1977) is an American politician and former CIA clandestine officer who served as the U.S. representative for TX's 23rd congressional district from 2015 to 2021.

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.

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.

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.

Following a nine-year stint with the CIA, Hurd ran for Congress in 2010 and was defeated in a runoff primary.

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.

Hurd ran for Congress again in 2014 and was successful.

The district stretched approximately 550 miles from San Antonio to El Paso along the U.S.-Mexican border.

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".

He was re-elected in 2016 and again in 2018, but did not seek re-election in 2020.

During his congressional tenure, Hurd became known for his expertise in technology and cybersecurity, as well as for his bipartisanship.

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.

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, 1000 mile wall across the American border with Mexico.

Hurd described the proposal as "the most expensive, least effective way to do border security".