>Over pizza and sodas, the candidate told the students about his 9 1/2 years as an agent in the Central Intelligence Agency.
Speaking to a College Republicans meeting at UTSA, 32-year-old Will Hurd recalled congressional delegations visiting CIA posts in India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. A senior member of the House intelligence committee, someone you'd think should have a nuanced understanding of the Arab world, asked him the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
Hurd thought he was joking. “I was shocked by the caliber of our elected leaders,” he said.
Out-financed and little-known, the John Marshall High School and Texas A&M graduate is running for Congress in the Republican primary, hoping for the opportunity to take on Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, the District 23 Democratic incumbent, in November.
Hurd spoke with the easy grace you look for in politicians, comfortably translating his CIA experiences into common-sense solutions to some of what troubles Washington.
Once, he said, after sending an austere budget to headquarters, he took a phone call from a supervisor. Cutting the budget, he was told, would lead to future problems. His office didn't need the 20 flat-screen televisions he ordered, but that's the way Washington works — and what Hurd thinks he can help change.
He's impressive enough to give GOP voters something to think about before they vote for the candidate they see on TV the most.
That's likely to be Francisco “Quico” Canseco, who bankrolled his own campaign and outspent former Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson in 2008 but lost by a 62-38 percent margin. Larson, in turn, lost to Rodriguez, 56-42 percent.
Canseco has other liabilities. He lives just outside District 23, though he resided within its current boundaries for much of his life; he opposes earmarks so vigorously that he can't bring himself to make an exception for the San Antonio River Improvements Project, which profited from them enormously; and he'd push for a federal law requiring all U.S. employers to use the E-Verify system to ensure the legal immigration status of their workers.
All three would make juicy targets for Rodriguez in the fall.
The challenge facing Hurd was clear at the UTSA event. There were 15 students, and they reacted warmly, but some were from Houston and couldn't vote in District 23.
Also, Hurd's father is African American, his mother Anglo, which means the district's voters would have to demonstrate a level of color-blindness they haven't shown before.
But Hurd's campaign isn't quixotic. A former student body president at A&M, he says he skipped over seeking local office because he believes the things he learned in the CIA would make more of a difference in Congress.
His CIA career was boosted by former A&M President Robert Gates, now the secretary of Defense. Gates isn't helping, but a few local heavyweights have rallied behind Hurd. He says he'll have enough money to get his message out.
The GOP primary has three other candidates, and I haven't met them, so this is no endorsement.
Still, Hurd has demonstrated enough ability to convince me that GOP voters have at least one viable alternative to the guy who will have the most money.