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This is an absolute earthquake in state and national politics.
1. Here is the first pass at our story on Hurd retiring. We will be updating throughout the night. texastribune.org/2019/08/01/us-…
2. I wrote a story about coming retirements last November. To give you the scale of what we are looking at in my delegation - Mike Conaway and Will Hurd were not even on my mind when I wrote the story: texastribune.org/2018/11/28/tex…
My phone is absolutely exploding with texts from Republican operatives reacting to the retirement. ALL have a word I don't normally use on this forum and my mother highly disapproves of...but it rhymes with duck.
There is no better illustration of life in Washington in this era: Two years ago, two House Reps live-streamed a road trip from Texas to DC while extolling the virtues of bipartisanship. I have no idea what Beto O’Rourke’s future holds, but neither man will be in Congress in 2021
This is my third full cycle covering Texas politics. Typically, the retirements drop in November. It’s considered good etiquette to do it then, and give one’s would-be successors at least a month to get their affairs in order and to decide on running.
Three Texas Republicans retired in the last week, one before recess even started. Just seems like people are so done with all of this.
There’s also another reason why these retirements are rough on national Republicans: Texas members traditionally raise a ton of money for the NRCC.
Hurd’s decision was not made impulsively, overnight or in reaction to any specific event, according to a source close to his decision-making process.
