Texas’ Hurd, Only Black Republican In House, Announces Retirement

[chelsea530]

Republicans are off the rails, and Lindsey Graham has lost his mind. There ought to be a post about his “behavior” yesterday.

Ben Orlebeke (ben_orlebeke)

[castor_troy]

@dr_coyote

I’d believe that every single GOP Senator who denies Russian involvement and embraces Trump is him/herself, essentially, an unindicted felon and traitor.

That’s kinda where I am, as well.

Can’t wait to see the Epstein files, there’s a few of them on that list (or on related lists that their friends will sell them out for leniency down the road) for sure.

[erik_t]

Well, it caught me by surprise, and I already thought they were, for the most part, pieces of shit!

[castor_troy]

O/T: Watergate 2.0, only this one is bragging about it.

Donald J. Trump (realDonaldTrump)

[txlawyer]

@dr_coyote

. . . represented a border district as a black GOP member in TX (the only affiliation that would win in his district) . . .

This is badly mistaken. TX-23 went back and forth between R and D reps for many years before Hurd won in 2014. His margin of victory in 2018 was something like 1000 votes. It’s a swing district in which Democrats have won and will most likely win again next year.

[dr_coyote]

There’re terms in the black community for people like Scott. I won’t use them, but I’ll think them very hard.

[dr_coyote]

Same.

[dr_coyote]

Sorry, that’s kind of what I meant, but was unclear. I meant “as a black candidate, in a swing district.” Thanks for the correction.

[rucleare]

@christianhankel

If he truly believes that the current GOP is treasonous/fatally compromised, some would consider it his duty as an American and as a member of Congress to do something about it. Right now, while he’s still on the national stage. Publicly join with Amash and warn the American people about what’s as stake.

This is exactly what I am looking for: leaders outside of Democratic Party circles with a conscience who have the guts to name this craziness for what it is and speak against it in no uncertain terms. We can’t convince their rabid followers to reconsider their allegiance to Current Occupant, but Republican leaders might be able to, if enough of them stood up to him.

[noonm]

@Paracelsus

I am generally pleased when I hear that a Republican is retiring, but not in this case. I’ve heard this guy on NPR interviews, and he actually sounds sane on any number of issues, unlike virtually all his party colleagues. The only other House Republican who sounded remotely sane and decent was Charlie Dent, and he retired last cycle.

In my view, whatever sane and reasonable positions a GOP politician holds is not a good enough justification for also supporting Trump. Any GOP federal officeholder that didn’t retire or go independent between Trump’s election in 2016 and the midterms in 2018 showed their true colors, in my opinion.

Doing so after the 2018 (particularly in the house) speaks more of political calculation rather than principled opposition.

[sedonaz]

He vowed to “stay involved in politics to grow a Republican Party that looks like America.”

With a now all-white Republican House membership, he’s got some serious work to do. Maybe he could’ve teamed up with Amash and started a ‘Sane Caucus’ of Republican House members. It might’ve eventually grown to 4 or even 5 people.

[cervantes]

@txlawyer

TX-23 went back and forth between R and D reps for many years before Hurd won in 2014. His margin of victory in 2018 was something like 1000 votes. It’s a swing district in which Democrats have won and will most likely win again next year.

Yes.

Three things:

1. Hillary Clinton won the district in 2016.

2. Hurd’s winning margin of fewer than a thousand votes in 2018 was due in part to the presence of a melanin-deficient Libertarian candidate who received more than four thousand votes.

3. The Democrat who nearly defeated Hurd last year, Gina Ortiz Jones, is running again. She is now the presumptive favorite but will need help if the Republicans decide to fight.

[texastwostep]

Hurd has been a real mixed bag. He strongly opposed Trump on immigration but was all over the map on other issues. He was trying to play down the middle in his district but it wasn’t working.

He almost got beat last election. He surely would have been in trouble this time.

That makes three from Texas who are leaving. Two more potentials in Texas (McCaul and Marchand) and at least one more targeted (Carter).

The times they are a’changing.

[khyber900]

1 week since the Mueller hearing: Dems are signing up for impeachment and GOPers are retiring.

Hurd was in the intel hearing btw. That seat is going to be won by the Dems. Gina Ortiz Jones lost it by less than 1000 votes. Huge turn of events.

These retirements tell me that: 1. Trump is too hard to defend, 2. GOP is not raising enough money to sell themselves or Trump relative to Dems, 3. Trump’s economic policies are not juicing Trump turn out. In fact, the Trump voter may be as sensitive to economics as they are to social issues. It doesn’t mean they vote Democratic (the vast majority will not). However, it impacts enthusiasm and turnout. With Trump going to the well too many times, too early on racism, I doubt he gets the late minute turnout surge that he got in 2018 to save a couple of Senate seats.

[davcbr]

“After reflecting on how best to help our country address these challenges, I have made the decision to not seek reelection…”

I have seen the problem, and it is us.

[valgalky23]

I’m following the Epstein saga, I was reading that the trial may not be until 2020 and there are a million pages of evidence (Holy Nunes’ Cow that’s a lot!) He’ll be in jail all that time and I don’t think he’ll last that long in there waiting for what will be an epic trial.

[bankerpup]

@dr_coyote

The sheer pace at which the Party deteriorated into an authoritarian personality cult has caught some of them by surprise, I think.

I would say the GOP’s been this way since Nixon. It just was dressed up better.

[cervantes]

@bankerpup

@dr_coyote

The sheer pace at which the Party deteriorated into an authoritarian personality cult has caught some of them by surprise, I think.

I would say the GOP’s been this way since Nixon. It just was dressed up better.

If we’re talking about a party marching in lock-step, Newt Gingrich’s 1994 “Contract [on] America” was a significant development.

[thepsyker]

Wouldn’t this be Watergate 3.0, seeing as how the DNC hack was already basically Watergate 2.0, just digital and outsourced to Russia?

[jinnj]

The Republicans who are bothered by these things will totally avoid any discussion… the intense crazies will do a combo of screaming that those things never happened … or that they dont matter …