Former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, who announced yesterday for the Republican nomination for president, is a long shot. But his entry into the '24 contest is a benchmark:

• Of the 12 major GOP candidates in the race, half are people of color, Axios' Sophia Cai reports.

Why it matters: It's a historic turn for Republicans, who recently have made a point of recruiting more minorities candidates — and have made slight gains among minority voters.

Hurd joins two other Black Americans in the GOP race — Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and conservative radio host Larry Elder.

• Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are Indian Americans.
• Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is Cuban American.

🥊 Reality check: Democrats continue to have a more diverse power structure — 80% of the minorities in the current Congress are Democrats. Black and Latino voters favor Dems by wide margins in national and most congressional elections.

🔬 Zoom in: Hurd, 45, a former CIA officer from San Antonio, served in the House for three terms, representing a mostly Hispanic district before leaving government to start a cybersecurity firm.

• In his last term, beginning in 2019, he was the only Black Republican in the House. Now there are four — along with 49 Black Democrats.

💭 The increase in Black Republicans has occurred as the party has pushed issues that include school choice, Hurd tells Axios.

• Hurd said he wasn't "afraid to show up to places where I didn't look like people or take a message that didn't necessarily resonate."

🔭 Zoom out: Republicans' increasing diversity in national politics is especially visible in the House, where the share of minority GOP members rose from 4% in 2019 to more than 7% this year.

• In the 2020 elections, every House seat Republicans took from Democrats was won by a woman, a minority or a veteran.
• Speaker McCarthy has been telling GOP donors that to win and hold a Republican majority in Congress, Republicans must elect candidates who "better reflect our nation as a whole."

The RNC has invested heavily in community outreach, ads in minority newspapers, and in minority volunteers campaigning door-to-door in neighborhoods they know.

• Go deeper: Meet the '24 candidates ... Share this story.

Any day now, the Supreme Court is expected to roll back affirmative action at universities. The decision could have a domino effect on corporate diversity initiatives:

• Corporate hiring and recruiting practices could be next in the crosshairs if the justices dismantle affirmative action, Axios' Eleanor Hawkins and Erin Doherty report.

Catch up quick: The high court is weighing whether colleges can explicitly consider applicants' race in admissions.

• Those in favor believe affirmative action is critical for ensuring diversity. Opponents believe it discriminates against white and Asian students.

🖼️ The big picture: Some conservative organizations have already begun to test the discriminatory argument with U.S. companies.

• America First Legal filed complaints with the EEOC, asking for an investigation into several companies' hiring practices.

⚠️ "[Companies] should expect some litigation ... based on what we think may happen," Valerie Capers Workman, chief legal officer for recruiting platform Handshake, told Axios.

• "That doesn't mean that the litigation will have merit. But it does mean that companies will probably have to spend some money defending claims."

Between the lines: Companies could see an uptick in reverse-discrimination claims from employees if the Supreme Court rules against race-conscious admissions, Andrew Turnbull, a partner at Morrison Foerster, told Axios.

• "When people hear affirmative action has been overruled, they may say: 'Well, why is my company still doing diversity programs?'" said Turnbull, who represents companies on labor and employment litigation.

🥊 Reality check: "Companies do not invest in DEI to favor a certain group of individuals over another group of individuals," said Aniela Unguresan, founder and CEO of Edge Certification.

• "Companies invest because diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces are more agile, more resilient and are sustainably more successful."

Sign up for Eleanor Hawkins' weekly Axios Communicators ... Share this story.

Adult Gen Zers (ages 18-25)  made up 20%+ of mortgage requests last year in Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, Birmingham, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Louisville, Axios' April Rubin writes from a LendingTree report.

Why it matters: Remote work lets young people try new cities and make choices not based on a job, said Gregg L. Witt, a brand strategist for Gen Z.

• The pandemic also led people to choose bigger living spaces for work-from-home comfort.

Minneapolis, St. Louis, Nashville and Kansas City, Mo., were other popular metros.

• In historically less affordable cities — San Francisco, New York and L.A. — Gen Z made up less than 10% of requests.

🧮 By the numbers: Adult Gen Zers (18-25) account for an average of 15% of potential homebuyers across the nation’s 50 largest metros. That figure will grow as younger members of the generation begin their adult lives.

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Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, 31, in Moscow City Court yesterday.

• Gershkovich, who was arrested and accused of espionage in March while on a reporting trip, was standing behind the glass wall of an enclosure for defendants before a court hearing.

The court rejected his appeal of his pretrial detention, ruling the U.S. citizen must remain in jail until at least late August.

• The Journal said in a statement: "Although the outcome was expected, it is no less an outrage."

Go deeper.

A secret military acoustic-detection system — dating to the Cold War, and designed to spot enemy submarines — first heard what the U.S. Navy suspected was the Titan submersible imploding on Sunday, hours after the submersible began its voyage, The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription).

• The Navy told the Coast Guard right away. Officials held off making their discovery public because they "wanted to ensure search-and-rescue operations continued and couldn’t say for sure it was an implosion."

The search for the Titanic-bound submersible is now an investigation and salvage mission, after the announcement that all five people aboard were killed when the vessel imploded deep in the North Atlantic.

🎞️ "Titanic" film director James Cameron, who has made multiple dives to the wreckage of the Titanic, told the BBC that he knew an "extreme catastrophic event" had happened as soon as he heard the submersible lost navigation and communications at the same time.

• He said briefings about 96 hours of oxygen supply and banging noises were a "prolonged and nightmarish charade" that gave false hope.

More from James Cameron.

AWS is stepping up its AI accelerator efforts via a $100 million Generative AI Innovation Center, Axios' Ryan Heath reports.

• Why it matters: This is a two-fold play by Amazon — to diversify generative AI interest away from the ChatGPT frenzy, and to grow AWS' share of the cloud computing market for running generative AI services.

What's happening: Part AI sandbox and part tutor, the center will connect AWS AI strategists, data scientists and engineers with customers.

• AWS expects use cases to focus on improving customer experiences, optimizing business operations and ramping up creative production.

The goal is getting AWS customers "going in the right direction," so they go on to build and deploy their own custom generative AI products and services, the head of the new center, Sri Elaprolu, told Axios.

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President Biden and India Prime Minister Narendra Modi — both teetotalers — toast with ginger ale at last night's White House state dinner for 400.

• "Two great nations, two great friends and two great powers. Cheers," Biden said.

Modi is vegetarian. Saffron risotto accompanied the main course of millet and stuffed mushrooms. Dessert was strawberry shortcake, infused with cardamom and rose syrup. More on the menu.

• State Dinner guest list.

Above: Modi addresses a joint meeting of Congress yesterday. Photos, YouTube.

• More on the visit.

For the first time since 2001, four of the top five picks in the NBA draft didn't play college basketball in the U.S.

• Why it matters: Last night's picks showed the increasing viability of overseas and domestic minor leagues as paths to the NBA, AP reports.

The top 5:

1. Victor Wembanyama, the most hyped NBA prospect since LeBron James in 2003, joins the San Antonio Spurs from France's top league, Pro A.
2. 🌊 The only top-five pick out of college was Brandon Miller, a one-and-done Alabama player who went No. 2 to the Charlotte Hornets.
3. Scoot Henderson went to the Portland Trail Blazers after two seasons with the NBA's developmental G League Ignite.

4-5. Twins Amen and Ausar Thompson played for Overtime Elite, an Atlanta-based pro league for 16- to 20-year-olds. Amen Thompson went to the Houston Rockets and Ausar to the Detroit Pistons.

• Go deeper: Picks 1-58.