June 02, 2025 12:09 PM UTC

The Bad Press has Begun for Jeff Hurd

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• by: Colorado Pols

Freshman Rep. Jeff “Bread Sandwich” Hurd (R-Grand Junction) is already starting to feel the political pain after backtracking on his own words — and his 2024 campaign promise — by voting in favor of the “big, beautiful budget bill” that House Republicans narrowly approved two weeks ago.

As Nathan Deal reports for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:

Seven members of western Colorado Indivisible groups visited U.S. House Rep. Jeff Hurd’s Grand Junction office Friday morning to air their grievances about Hurd’s vote to pass President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.

The group visited the office at 743 Horizon Court Suite 112, where Betsy Bair — the district director for the Grand Junction Republican representing Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District — fielded concerns over Hurd’s vote for the bill, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates would, if passed, lead to $700 billion in cuts to Medicaid and $267 billion in cuts to SNAP benefits…

…“Many of us are disappointed that he voted yes,” said Michelle Jonjak, who read a note from a nurse that was written ahead of the House’s vote on the Big Beautiful Bill, which passed 215-214. “As a nurse, the attacks on the CDC, the NIH, Medicaid, there’s a lot of concern that Medicare cuts coming with that, as well. That leads to more hospital uncompensated care, worse outcomes for patients, higher costs for the community, and overall, the only people it helps is billionaires. I just don’t understand how that helps anyone in CD3.”

Holly Speaks, a therapist from Montrose, called the bill the “big bad bill”, saying Hurd “voted to hurt his constituents.” She asked why the bill included articles on public lands sales, eliminating the tax on gun silencers and impacting judicial power.

Hurd himself was not actually at his Grand Junction office on Friday, leaving District Director Betsy Bair to deal with the complaints.

“Bread Sandwich” may try to take comfort in the fact that Friday’s visit didn’t feature an overwhelming crowd in terms of size, but the Sentinel story shows that there is a real appetite for covering the blowback on Hurd’s vote for legislation that would gut Medicaid and food stamps and significantly endanger the existence of rural hospitals. The reason is obvious: Hurd voted to make massive cuts to something that he had publicly pledged to protect for more than a year now. People noticed what Hurd was saying and they noticed what he did instead.

There is nothing to spin — this is a plain and obvious example of a lawmaker doing the exact thing he promised never to do. The U.S. Senate may not approve the House version of the “big, beautiful bill,” but that won’t save Hurd because his vote is now forever on the record. If the actions of just seven people can generate a negative headline in the newspaper of record in the third congressional district, that is a pretty good indication that this story will get a lot worse before it gets better for vulnerable Republican incumbents.

And Hurd didn’t even need to hold an idiotic press conference to generate the heat.