Good Friday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing. Stay tuned after the show for a message from the Partnership for America's Healthcare Future.

And I'm Jake Sherman. If you're a House Republican, this has been an absolutely gutting few weeks. And truly, if someone's trying to spin you on how the political picture is not that bad for the House GOP at this moment, you want to

discount them as a political professional or analyst because it's really, really bad, deflating and

discouraging. On Thursday night, Will Hurd, the only black Republican in the House announced he

would not run for re-election. He beat Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones by fewer than a thousand votes in

2018 in a large district that runs the stretch of the Texas-Mexico border, and she's running again. The NRCC likes to say this is an R-plus-1. Fine. Perhaps it's an R-plus-1, but it's an R-plus-1 that Hillary Clinton won by three points, so it's not much of an R-plus-1. A side note. Herd is particularly close to House minority leader kevin mccarthy when we were

traveling with mccarthy for our book he once startled his capital police detail late one evening

after a very long day agreeing to pay herd's sister a visit at a downtown san antonio bowling lane

here's what he said about her to a group group of Republicans during a fundraiser at a restaurant

in El Paso.

Will Hurd is always challenged, but he sets himself apart.

So let's review the tape.

In the last two weeks, the following House Republicans have announced they were leaving Congress,

Representative Martha Roby of Alabama, one of 13 women. Representative Paul Mitchell, Republican from Michigan,

a member of leadership. Pete Olson of Texas, who represents a bluing district outside of Houston,

Representative Mike Conaway from Texas, a well-respected party elder, and Representative Justin Amash, an Arab-American,

recently left the party and became an independent.

A fun stat that's making its way around Republican circles, there are more men named Jim

in the House than there are Republican women running for re-election.

The House Republicans are increasingly white and male.

There is no diversity to speak of. How can

they recruit anything but white men with what their membership looks like right now? Here's the bleak

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