Retirement of only black House Republican jars GOP for 2020

By ALAN FRAM

San Antonio. Hurd announced on Aug. 1, 2019, he will not seek reelection in 2020. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The only black House Republican, a critic of President Donald Trump’s, has joined a growing list of GOP lawmakers not seeking reelection next year, jarring the party’s efforts to woo minority voters and recapture House control.

Rep. Will Hurd, a moderate Texan who’s split with Trump over race and immigration, became the ninth House Republican to say he or she will depart and the sixth in just over a week. Those retirements — and Republicans say there are more to come — will only complicate the GOP’s pathway to gaining the minimum 18 seats it will need to grab the chamber’s majority in the November 2020 elections.

Hurd, 41, personifies some problems his party faces as the campaign season gears up: He is among several junior lawmakers to abruptly abandon vulnerable seats and is a visible symbol of the GOP’s struggle to shed its image as a bastion for white men.

While the former CIA agent’s written announcement late Thursday said he was pursuing an opportunity in technology and national security, he added, “I will stay involved in politics to grow a Republican Party that looks like America.” He was not specific.