Morning Distribution for Friday, June 23, 2023

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Morning Distribution]( Friday, June 23, 2023 Your daily briefing from FiveThirtyEight --------------------------------------------------------------- The Morning Story [2024-TOC-REP-WillHurd-v01-ks-4×3]( [Will Hurd Is Running To Win A Tiny Slice Of The Small Pie Of Anti-Trump Voters]( By [Geoffrey Skelley]( Have you ever tried to push your way into an already crowded, narrow elevator in an old apartment building? In [announcing his candidacy]( for the presidency on Thursday, former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas sought to do just that. Hurd has joined a growing collection of Republican presidential candidates who are positioning themselves as skeptical of — or even in opposition to — former President [Donald Trump]( the current front-runner whose ideas and stylings have reshaped the Republican Party. Broadly defined, this group includes clear Trump adversaries such as former New Jersey Gov. [Chris Christie]( and former Arkansas Gov. [Asa Hutchinson]( and not-as-vociferous critics like former Vice President [Mike Pence]( and Miami Mayor [Francis Suarez](. Hurd, who served three terms in the House, [said in his announcement]( that he wouldn’t be “afraid of Donald Trump,” and he called Trump a “failed politician.” He [had previously castigated Trump]( for hurting the GOP’s brand in recent elections and [for putting “lives at risk”]( by retaining classified documents that are at the center of a [37-count federal indictment of Trump](. However, this cohort’s stance toward Trump is out of step with the views of the vast majority of Republican primary voters, who mostly support either Trump or Florida Gov. [Ron DeSantis]( another candidate offering a Trump-adjacent, culture-war-driven [outlook for the GOP](. Despite this, nearly half the GOP candidate field can now be categorized as Trump skeptical or anti-Trump while seeking to represent a party that is more pro-Trump than not. As a result, this group of candidates stands to fight over an already thin slice of the primary pie that constitutes a clear minority of primary voters. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: Are Millennials Getting More Conservative?]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 47 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023.