Herrera, who won the most votes in the Republican primary for the seat, avoided a runoff when Rep. Tony Gonzales dropped out of the race amid an affair scandal.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed Brandon Herrera for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, days after the YouTuber became the district’s Republican nominee amid incumbent Rep. Tony Gonzales’ withdrawal from the race.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump applauded Herrera’s support for many of Republicans’ top campaign issues including school choice, border security and protecting “our always under siege Second Amendment.” Herrera, a gun rights activist, had criticized Gonzales for his vote on a bipartisan gun safety bill in the wake of the 2022 school massacre in Uvalde, which is in the district.
While Herrera garnered the most votes in the district’s Republican primary on March 3, he did not win the nomination outright, pushing him into a runoff with Gonzales. Two days later, Gonzales admitted to a rumored affair with a staffer and withdrew from the race.
Herrera earned the nomination in his second run in the district’s Republican primary. In 2024, he lost to Gonzales by less than 400 votes.
Gonzales, who will finish out his third term in January, was mired by public scrutiny that mounted over an affair he had with Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, a former aide who later died by suicide. Several other politicians and public officials, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, had called on him to end his reelection bid after he came in second in the primary.
The House Ethics Committee is currently investigating whether Gonzales “engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual employed in his office.”
Trump had endorsed Gonzales in the primary before his affair entered public conversation, but later omitted the representative from a list he reposted of his endorsees in Texas’ congressional primaries days before the election.
Herrera now faces 40-year-old attorney Katy Padilla-Stout, who won a majority vote in the district’s Democratic primary for the party’s nomination.
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