Tony Gonzales, Uvalde's Congressman, Fends Off Challenge From Gun Influencer
Rep. Tony Gonzales, the West Texas Republican who earned censures from the Republican Party for backing a bipartisan gun control law and opposing a border security bill, narrowly dispatched a right-wing challenger in a runoff election Tuesday.
Gonzales beat Brandon Herrera, a far-right YouTuber who managed to deny Gonzales a majority of votes in the March Republican primary. The one-on-one race Tuesday was incredibly close: Gonzales won by just over 400 votes, or roughly 1% of the vote.
The Texas runoff is the latest instance of a failed attempt by arch-conservatives to challenge primary Republican incumbents from the right; no such challengers have been successful so far this election cycle. Herrera campaigned with a lift from House firebrand Matt Gaetz, who forced the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year and who backed a failed primary bid against GOP Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois in March.
Gonzales, a Navy veteran, is a two-term incumbent in what’s traditionally been a moderate, majority-Hispanic seat extending from El Paso to San Antonio along the Mexico border. It’s a region that’s seen a surge in arrests for illegal crossings. It’s also home to Uvalde, where two years ago last week, a mass shooting at an elementary school killed 19 students and two teachers.
Gonzales faced a multi-way GOP primary in the spring after breaking with the party in the wake of the Uvalde shooting. The congressman voted with Democrats to expand background checks for gun buyers and close the “boyfriend loophole.” Herrera, a gun manufacturer with a huge social media following, was the runner-up in that race.
Herrera’s candidacy was an unorthodox match for a district known for one of the country’s worst mass shootings. He even campaigned at the gun store where the Uvalde shooter bought his weapons — an event that resulted in a bomb-squad investigation after a fan gifted him what authorities called an “inactive explosive device.” The campaign also put Herrera’s hundreds of YouTube videos under greater scrutiny, including one where he tests out a Nazi-era firearm.
Gonzales raised more than three times as much as Herrera and used that money in part for an attack ad that highlighted a joke Herrera made about veterans dying by suicide.
The incumbent had called Herrera a “neo-Nazi” who would create more division and chaos in Congress if elected.
“Are we going to be the party that governs and gets things done in a conservative manner?” Gonzales told CNN. “Or are we going to be the party that has jesters that come up here and say wild and crazy outrageous things and just try to burn the place down?”
Herrera told HuffPost this month that Gonzales was afraid to engage with him on policy because it would force him to defend positions that many Republicans don’t agree with. “All he can do is try to take me out of context or twist jokes, and it’s not working,” he said.
After losing, Herrera posted on X, formerly called Twitter, that it took millions of dollars for Gonzales and his outside allies to win by even a few hundred votes.
“We looked down the biggest guns of the DC establishment to the tune of probably over $10 million, and told them they didn’t own us. We made them fight for their lives,” he wrote.
Gonzales now faces Democrat Santos Limon, a civil engineer, in a district that was redrawn after the last census to be more favorable to Republicans.
