(HorizonPost.com) – Former Texas GOP Congressman Will Hurd announced on Monday that he was suspending his presidential campaign and throwing his support behind former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as the best candidate to stop Donald Trump from winning the GOP nomination, CBS News reported.
Hurd, who launched his ill-fated campaign in June, has long been an outspoken critic of the former president. In his brief quest for the GOP nomination, Hurd did not shy away from directly hammering Trump.
In July, Hurd was met with loud boos at the Iowa GOP’s Lincoln Day Dinner when he accused Donald Trump of only running for president “to stay out of prison.”
However, his moderate positions were largely out of step with Republican primary voters and his low polling kept him out of the two debates.
In a statement on Monday, Hurd thanked his supporters for the “time and energy” they had given to his campaign and emphasized the need for the GOP primary field to “consolidate” around one candidate who can beat both Donald Trump in the primaries and Joe Biden in the General Election.
He called on Republican donors, candidates, and voters to rally behind “an alternative candidate” to defeat Trump, warning that failing to do so will repeat the same mistakes that happened during the 2016 primary.
Hurd argued that if the party nominates Trump “or the various personalities jockeying to intimidate his divisive, crass behavior,” Republicans will lose the election.
The former congressman said Nikki Haley would be “the best person,” saying she could “unite the country” and take on the challenges facing it.
Hurd said Haley has a vision for the country that is different from Trump’s and her ability to understand “the complexities of our foreign policy” is “unmatched.”
In a post on X, Nikki Haley responded to Hurd’s endorsement of her campaign, saying the Republican Party must “come together and make Joe Biden a one-term president.”
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