Will Hurd, a Republican former congressman from Texas who was as soon as seen as a rising star within the G.O.P., introduced on Monday that he would droop his marketing campaign for president. He endorsed Nikki Haley, the previous U.N. ambassador and governor of South Carolina.
Mr. Hurd entered the 2024 Republican major race in June with a video that straight criticized former President Donald J. Trump, positioning himself amongst a handful of explicitly anti-Trump candidates. However he struggled to achieve traction with voters and didn’t qualify for each the primary and second Republican Nationwide Committee debates.
“Whereas I recognize on a regular basis and power our supporters have given, it is very important acknowledge the realities of the political panorama and the necessity to consolidate our get together round one individual to defeat each Donald Trump and President Biden,” Mr. Hurd wrote on X, the platform previously often known as Twitter. “I urge donors, voters, and different candidates to unite round another candidate to Trump.”
“If the Republican Social gathering nominates Donald Trump or the varied personalities jockeying to mimic his divisive, crass conduct, we are going to lose,” Mr. Hurd wrote.
Mr. Hurd had banked on his long-shot bid’s resonating with a swath of voters who don’t need to see Mr. Trump win the nomination however oppose President Biden’s re-election.
He pitched himself as a contemporary, average Republican who may attraction to swing voters and work throughout the aisle — a message at odds with the hyperpartisan temper in his get together. He pushed again in opposition to the culture-war messaging embraced by others within the race — he criticized “banning books” and assaults on the L.G.B.T.Q. group — whereas casting Mr. Trump as a “loser” who he stated was “operating to remain out of jail.”
However a overwhelming majority of polls confirmed his assist at far beneath 1 p.c in a race closely dominated by the previous president.
In endorsing Ms. Haley, Mr. Hurd stated that he had sought a candidate who may “unite us” and “navigate the complicated challenges we face, significantly in relation to our nationwide safety.”
“Ambassador Haley has proven a willingness to articulate a special imaginative and prescient for the nation than Donald Trump and has an unmatched grasp on the complexities of our international coverage,” he stated.
In 2017, Mr. Hurd gained consideration for a cross-country highway journey with Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat who on the time served in a neighboring Home district. After flights have been canceled in San Antonio due to a storm, they determined to journey 1,600 miles by automobile again to Washington in a present of bipartisan good will.
Mr. Hurd represented a aggressive, closely Latino district in Texas, and when he left workplace in 2021, he was the one Black Republican within the Home.
Even when Mr. Hurd had met the standards for showing on the controversy stage, it’s unclear whether or not he would have been permitted to take part. Mr. Hurd stated he wouldn’t signal a pledge to assist the get together’s eventual nominee — a part of the R.N.C.’s debate necessities — as a result of he didn’t plan to assist Mr. Trump below any circumstances.
