The Crucial Role of Centrists: Will Hurd

Let's Find Common Ground

USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future

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5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

We live in a world of political extremes, with the far right and far left denigrating each other on a regular basis. But could the future lie with politicians who appeal to everyone else? Our guest on this show says yes. Former CIA agent and Republican congressman Will Hurd of San Antonio won three terms representing Texas’s 23rd district. He was told he could never it because it was bright blue, while he was red. Hurd says he succeeded by engaging with everyone, not just voters who shared all his beliefs. “In the media in Washington DC…moderate means middle of the road,” he says. “But in reality, moderates are the ones that do the hard work and get things done because they're the ones that are having to take a philosophy to people that may not identify with it.” Hurd grew up bi-racial in Texas, which gave him the early experience of finding common ground. In his book American Reboot he outlines how to "get big things done" by focusing on policy, not politics. He also shares his thoughts on what Americans should be worrying about, including losing control of the technology which we use to run our lives.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we start the show, Common Ground Committee is doing a survey to find out more about what
0:04.5	you want from our podcast. Please help us by going to commongroundcommittee.org-podcasts and
0:10.9	filling out the survey. Yeah, your response will really help us. We'd like to know how
0:18.0	Ashley and I can make this podcast even better. The survey is easy to fill out. Just go to
0:23.9	commongroundcommittee.org-podcasts and thanks. We live in a world of political extremes with a far
0:32.8	right and far left denigrating each other on a regular basis, but could the future lie with politicians
0:38.7	who appeal to everyone else? Our guest in this week's podcast says yes. Former CIA agent and
0:46.5	Republican Congressman Will Hurrod of San Antonio won three terms in the 23rd Congressional District
0:53.6	in Texas, a place that he was told he could never win because it was bright blue while he was red.
1:07.6	This is Let's Find Common Ground. I'm Richard Davies. And I'm Ashley Nell Tite.
1:13.6	Will Hurrod says he succeeded by engaging with everyone, not just voters who shared all his
1:18.4	beliefs. And he says others like him can do the same. In his book, American reboot, he outlines
1:24.6	how to get big things done by focusing on policy, not politics. We spoke with Will just before a
1:32.0	bipartisan compromise deal was announced on guns and also as the January 6th hearings in Congress
1:39.3	were about to get underway. Diving right in with current events will obviously the whole country
1:45.6	is shaken by the recent mass shootings, especially the one in Evalde, Texas, which was part of your
1:52.8	congressional district for years. Do you mind sharing your thoughts about what happened there?
1:58.2	Well, look, it starts with you still have families that are having to bury their children.
2:03.7	And Evalde is a community where everybody knows each other. And so it's not just families
2:10.3	that are grieving. It's the entire community that is grieving because somebody coached those kids
2:16.0	in Little League and others drove them to school in the mornings. So the pain is just unbearable.
2:24.3	There's a lot of questions about what happened still weeks later. And one, understanding what
	...

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