No matter what the Supreme Court ruled in last week's landmark decision on affirmative action, "race still does matter" when it comes to colleges deciding whether or not a student should be able to attend, former Rep. Will Hurd, a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, said Sunday.
"The reality is, with or without affirmative action, we have done a terrible job of preparing our Black and brown kids to be able to go to college," the Texas Republican told CNN's "State of the Union." "We have been failing them in making sure that they have the skill sets and the tools they need to get to college, but also be successful while they're there."
According to the ruling concerning two universities at the center of the case, Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, colleges can no longer use race as a sole reason for accepting students. Still, they are able to consider an applicant’s discussion of how race has affected their life if it is "concretely tied" to a "quality of character or a unique ability," reports CNN.
Hurd also spoke out about the court's ruling in favor of a Christian webpage designer who said requiring her to make web sites promoting same-sex marriage conflicted with her religious beliefs.
"This decision makes me uncomfortable because we're protecting speech that I don't agree with, and I don't agree personally with an anti-LGBTQ sentiment," said Hurd, but he added that even speech "we don't like or agree with" must be protected.
Hurd in 2019 was one of eight House Republicans who voted to outlaw LGBTQ discrimination, and now, with his Republican opponents attacking such rights, he called on them to focus on attacking "war criminals like Vladimir Putin and not my friends in the LGBTQ community."
"It is 2023," he said. "We should be talking about, how do we embrace our differences…we're in a new cold war with the Chinese government. The Chinese government is trying to surpass us as a global superpower. That's going to impact everybody. And we need to be making sure that we're having a competition of ideas on how to be prepared for that. We can talk about the economy all day long."
Hurd also on Sunday said he was glad that a State Department report came out concerning the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and said that while the withdrawal talks started under former President Donald Trump's administration, decisions from President Joe Biden's administration "prevented people from coming out of the country when they could, so this was a debacle that hurt our reputation around the world. It's just one more thing that our allies are questioning our ability to work together against common threats."
Finally, Hurd discussed his chances of being on the stage at the GOP primary's first debate in August and said he's still working toward the requirements but one thing he can't do is to "lie to get access to a microphone" and agree to support the eventual GOP nominee, particularly if that person is Trump.
"I have taken one oath, and that's to protect the Constitution," he said. "I take one pledge. That's when I put my hand on the heart and pledge to the flag of the United States. And I have recently taken one vow. That's to my awesome, beautiful wife."
But, Hurd vowed, "I'm not going to support Donald Trump."
"I recognize the impact that has on my ability to get access to the debate stage, but I can't lie. It would be easy to say, I will do it, and then, when it comes down, change your mind. But I just -- I can't do that."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.