Will Hurd, GOP’s only pro-gay presidential candidate, calls Trump a “loser” following arrest & slipping poll numbers

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Pretty much everyone agrees that GOP presidential hopeful Will Hurd doesn’t have a chance in hell of winning his party’s nomination in 2024. But god bless the man for trying.

If the 46-year-old former Texas congressman, who bills himself as a “common sense” Republican, didn’t kill his chances earlier in the month when he urged conservatives to focus on defeating Vladimir Putin rather than fighting LGBTQ+ people, then he certainly did this weekend when he called Donald Trump a “loser”, which everyone knows is the worst thing you can possibly call the one-term, twice-impeached, four-time indicted ex-president.

Speaking to MSNBC’s Ali Velshi on Sunday, Hurd called out his Republican colleagues for claiming to be about “law and order” while simultaneously saying they would support Trump as the party’s nominee even if he was convicted of any of the nearly 100 charges he’s currently facing. (40 in Florida, 34 in New York, 13 in Georgia, and four in Washington, D.C.)

“If the GOP is going to be the party of law and order, then we need to stand up for law and order,” Hurd, a former CIA officer, said. “We have candidates that are saying crazy things and trying to mimic behavior that lost. Donald Trump is a loser.”

He certainly isn’t wrong there.

In addition to losing the 2020 presidential election (as well as the popular vote in 2016), Trump is widely considered to be the reason why Republicans have lost the last one two three midterm elections.

And yet he’s still the GOP frontrunner for president in 2024.

Hurd went on to call Trump “baggage” and described he and the MAGA movement as “self-inflicted wounds” on the part of Republicans.

“The fact we’re trying to continue some of his activities after the last election he won was in 2016, that’s insane,” he said.

Trump’s frontrunner status appears to be dwindling, however.

A new poll from Emerson College found he suffered a quick decrease in support among Republican primary voters after he skipped last week’s debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday, which drew an impressive 13 million viewers, and was arrested in Georgia on Thursday.

The poll, which was conducted August 25-26, found 50% of GOP primary voters planned to vote for Trump. That’s down from 56% support in a pre-debate/arrest poll, and the lowest support he’s seen to date in an Emerson poll.

At the same time, the poll also found multiple candidates in the field see a slight uptick in support following the debate. Most notable was Nikki Haley, who saw the biggest boost, going from 2% to 7%. Followed by Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis, who somehow managed to go 10% to 12%, despite his performance being widely panned by pundits from both parties.

Hurd was barred from participated in last week’s debate after he failed to meet the necessary polling criteria and to pledge his undying support for the whoever the eventual Republican nominee is, defiantly saying, “I will not sign a blood oath to Donald Trump.”

According to his campaign website, when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues, Hurd’s motto is simple: “Don’t be a jerk, racist, misogynist or homophobe.”

Related:

Wow, there’s actually a GOP presidential candidate who’s standing up for LGBTQ+ people

Former Texas congressman Will Hurd says his party should stop demonizing LGBTQ+ folx.