(Bloomberg View) – If for some unfathomable reason you are planning to follow a congressman through a baking-hot Texas summer, I recommend you choose Will Hurd. He's personable, mild-mannered, and clearly in command of the issues. Also, he holds many of his town halls in Dairy Queens, so you can cool off with a Blizzard while you wait for the event to start.

Those were not my reasons for visiting Hurd's district. I went to see Hurd because he's in the only competitive district in Texas. Running along the southwestern edge of the state, the Texas 23rd has 820 miles of border and a majority-Hispanic population. Hillary Clinton carried it by 3.4 percentage points. Hurd, a Republican, carried it by 1.3 points.

In short, it is that increasing rarity in U.S. politics: a truly competitive political district. Hurd is a moderate Republican, or at least, the closest thing we've got in these days of polarization. His opponents complain that he votes with his party too often, but party unity on congressional votes has been steadily rising for decades, and given the complete dysfunction of Congress in recent years, Hurd, now in his second term, hasn't had many opportunities to boldly buck his party on a major policy issue. He's certainly not one of President Donald Trump's yes-men.