Texas black GOP congressman relishes being political outlier

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Texas Rep. Will Hurd speaks Urdu better than Spanish, even though his sprawling district is two-thirds Hispanic.

The 37-year-old worked for the CIA for almost a decade, much of it undercover in Pakistan, where he mastered the national language.

But Hurd’s comfortable with being an outlier. He is Texas’ first black Republican elected to Congress since Reconstruction and only one of two black GOP House members.

Hurd also has avoided the tea party rhetoric on immigration and border security embraced by many Texas conservatives.

Democrats say he’s a fluky product of last year’s Republican wave.

Hurd knows he turned heads by winning in November. But he’s also vowing to repeat in 2016: “Everyone wants to know how the black dude got elected in the Hispanic district.”