Texas’ Tony Gonzales tries to fight off YouTube personality in runoff election where “anything can happen”
The Texas Republican Party gathered in San Antonio for its annual convention this weekend, but GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales, who represents part of San Antonio and lives there, was ambivalent about attending.
That’s not entirely surprising — one of the featured speakers was Rep. Matt Gaetz, who endorsed Gonzales’ opponent, Brandon Herrera, in Tuesday’s GOP primary runoff in the 23rd District. The Texas Republican Party censured Gonzales last year over his vote for gun control legislation backed by the Biden White House, introduced in the wake of the 2022 Uvalde school shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers. Uvalde is also in the 23rd District.
Gonzales had four Republican opponents in the March primary, which stretches 800 miles from San Antonio along the U.S.-Mexico border to El Paso. Gonzales failed to secure 50% of the vote, forcing him into a runoff with Herrera, the next highest vote getter. The runoff winner will face Democrat Santos Limon in November.
Gonzales told “Face the Nation” on Sunday that he “knew it at the time” when he cast the vote for the 2022 bill that it would hurt him politically, but he insisted he’s not “afraid of that vote.”
Although the district includes much of the U.S.-Mexico border area, immigration has not been as contentious an issue as gun control has. University of Texas San Antonio political science professor Jon Taylor noted Gonzales had once tried to position himself as being more pragmatic on the border but has since moved further to the right, much closer to Herrera on the issue.
Gonzales was first elected in 2020 after Republican Rep. Will Hurd decided not to run again. In 2018, Hurd barely defeated Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones by just 1,000 votes. The 23rd District was once considered the “only swing district in Texas,” says Blank, but the redistricting after the 2020 election made it considerably redder, which has allowed an extremist candidate like Herrera to win more votes.
If Herrera wins the primary, Blank said it’s an “open question if Herrera is an electable candidate in a general election — even in a district drawn to favor Republicans.”
More
Source: cbsnews.com