Gonzales secured a key bid from Gov. Greg Abbott in April. The congressman is vying for a third term.
SAN ANTONIO — Tony Gonzales faces a big obstacle on his road to a potential third term occupying the U.S. House District 23 seat. On Tuesday, voters will decide between him or Second Amendment YouTuber Brandon Herrera to be the Republican nominee.
Gonzales and Herrera were the top two vote-getters in the March Primary Election. In a packed Republican race, no candidate reached the 50% threshold to win outright. The winner will go on to face Santos Limon in November.
Polls open at 7 a.m. in Bexar County.
U.S. House District 23 encompasses 58,000 square miles in west Texas and is home to more than 778,000 residents, according to Census Reporter.
Gonzales, the incumbent, is a 2014 graduate of American Public University and served in the U.S. Navy from 1999 to 2019. He is running for reelection in the 23rd congressional district for the first time since the Texas GOP censured him for breaking with the party over his positions on gun control and border security. The rebuke against one of their own means the state Republican Party doesn’t have to spend money to help defend his incumbency.
Herrera owns his own firearms manufacturing business, and he’s been going on the attack with mailers. Gonzales, meanwhile, has kept his campaign focused on the border, having called for increased deportation flights and faster processing of migrants. With more than 3 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, the 28-year-old has made a name for himself by selling reassembled military grade weapons and reminding voters than Gonzales was the only Texas House Republican to vote in favor of gun safety legislation that passed in the wake of the Uvalde elementary school shooting (Uvalde is within the district).
Governor Greg Abbott last month endorsed Gonzales, praising the incumbent for fighting for border security measures in Congress. Gonzales is one of the most centrist members of the Republican party, a dangerous place for any incumbent to be in a primary, where voters tend to be more partisan than those in general elections.
Known for his politically incorrect online persona as “The AK Guy,” Herrera is guns first, and politics second. His entire brand and fanbase surrounds promoting and sensationalizing guns on his YouTube channel where he explains gun history, trolls gun safety advocates, rates his favorite “gun fails” and shoots a variety of firearms.
His crassness and irreverence has offended many on the left and the right. He has no formal political experience and the most high-profile endorsement he has garnered so far is from Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who was reportedly scolded by GOP House leadership for campaigning against an incumbent.
Visit KENS5.com/elections when polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday for live results.
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