Rep. Will Hurd was one of the good guys. But now the Texas Republican is retiring.
The GOP’s last remaining African American House member put out a statement saying he won’t seek reelection in 2020, and instead wants to focus on working on national security issues outside of Congress. In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Hurd expressed his frustrations with President Trump’s racially charged “go back” comments directed at minority congresswomen, his ongoing feud with Baltimore Rep. Elijah Cummings, and his general rhetoric on racial issues.
According to the Post, Hurd said that “Hispanics, African Americans and other groups would be receptive to conservative themes if they weren’t drowned in racially charged rhetoric.” His retirement is just another reminder: The GOP has a diversity problem, and it’s only getting worse.
I have made the decision to not seek reelection for the 23rd Congressional District of Texas in order to pursue opportunities outside the halls of Congress to solve problems at the nexus between technology and national security. https://t.co/GeZ4Hh264f
— Rep. Will Hurd (@HurdOnTheHill) August 2, 2019
Out of the nearly 300 elected Republican officials at the highest level of government — governors, senators, congressmen — only about a dozen are nonwhite. And with Hurd’s exit, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina will be the sole black Republican in Congress.
Only 12 of the 277 Republican governors, senators and congresspeople are people of color.
That’s 4%.
Or, conversely, 96% of major Republican elected officials are white.
cc: @jbouie
— Dan Lavoie (@djlavoie) August 2, 2019
This is a serious problem, and it’s not “identity politics” to point it out.
When diversity concerns are brought up, conservatives are tempted to dismiss the problem and bury their heads in the sand. Many proclaim “why do we care what race people are?” or otherwise demand that we should judge people based on the content of their character, not their race.
Of course, in the abstract, they’re completely right. In an imaginary world where race played no part in electoral decision-making, it’d be perfectly fine if the GOP congressional delegation was mostly white, if that was truly who was best for the job. But we don’t live in a fantasyland.
When minorities make up a tiny fraction of GOP’s representatives, despite comprising roughly 40% of the country, there’s a problem. When the number of minority Republican officials pales in comparison to the number of minority Republican voters, there’s clearly a problem.
No one is suggesting that we pick token minority officials just for representation’s sake. But the GOP needs women, Hispanic, African American, and gay elected officials, and there’s no shortage of qualified candidates. The Republican Party must embody the core conservative principle of opportunity for all, and show that anyone can stand for small government, the Constitution, and free market capitalism.
I’ve previously written about what the GOP has to do to evolve on race:
This all still rings true. A party represented almost exclusively by old white men will be less successful competing for the next generation of voters. Rep. Hurd’s retirement is just another reminder that until the GOP puts more emphasis on policies that uplift minority communities instead of dumping on them, it will continue to struggle with a serious diversity problem.
