Former CIA clandestine officer and GOP Rep. Will Hurd has announced he is joining the Republican race to be president.

The Texan and Donald Trump critic announced he is jumping into the growing GOP field with 14 rivals during an interview with CBS on Thursday morning. 

'This is a decision that my wife and I decided to do because we live in complicated times and we need common sense,' he said.

Hurd, 45, was born in San Antonio, Texas, and just got married last year to Lynlie Wallace. He worked for the CIA for nine years between 2000 and 2009. 

His tours of duty included stints in India and Pakistan, where he worked undercover, at the height of the War on Terror.

One of his first assignments was the U.S. intelligence response to the Al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole in the Gulf of Aden in October 2000.

Primarily, Hurd was based in Washington, D.C., where he gave intelligence briefings to members of Congress. This duty is what Hurd credits for his desire to run for Congress. 

'Our enemies plot, create chaos, and threaten the American Dream. At home, illegal immigration and fentanyl stream into our country. Inflation, still out of control. Crime and homelessness growing in our cities,' Hurd says in his announcement video released Thursday. 

'President Biden can't solve these problems - or won't. And if we nominate a lawless, selfish, failed politician like Donald Trump - who lost the House, the Senate, and the White House - we all know Joe Biden will win again.'

Democrats won control of the House in 2018 and the Senate in 2020 but saw the GOP retake the House majority during last year's midterms.