Outgoing Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) has some parting wisdom for his Republican colleagues.
During an interview with Politico on Wednesday, Hurd warned that the GOP’s lack of diversity will hurt the party.
“If the Republican Party doesn’t start looking like America and being appealing to all Americans, then there won’t be a Republican Party in America,” said Hurd, the House’s only black Republican. “And that requires folks in the party to take our conservative message to communities that have never seen us or benefited from us.”
The Texas Republican admitted his party’s brand is “pretty bad” among minorities, young people and suburban women with college degrees because “there’s this narrative out there that we don’t care.”
“If people don’t think you care about them, they’re not going to listen to your idea regardless of what that idea is,” Hurd explained. “And the only way you solve that is by showing up, the only way you solve that is by not saying mean things and saying misogynist things, not saying racist things, not being homophobic or any kind of phobic.”
Hurd announced in August that he would not run for reelection in 2020, making him one of six Texas Republicans in a mass “Texodus” who’ve decided to leave the House. His departure will leave the House Republican caucus without a single black lawmaker.
