Tony Gonzales triumphs over primary challenge, defying GOP peers

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) has survived his high-profile primary election, setting the stage for him to be reelected to a third term in his Texas House seat while defeating a far-right challenger who was backed by many of the incumbent’s GOP colleagues in the lower chamber.

Gonzales defeated challenger Brandon Herrera after garnering 50.7% of the vote with 95% of the ballots counted. The Associated Press called the race in the incumbent’s favor early Wednesday morning.

Gonzales’s victory brings to an end a monthslong contentious primary challenge that split the GOP as some of the Texas Republicans’s peers in the House endorsed his opponent to oust him from his seat. Because Texas’s 23rd Congressional District is considered solidly Republican, whoever won the primary was considered the favorite to win the seat in the November election.

Herrera, a gun rights activist nicknamed the “AK Guy” and hard-right YouTuber, challenged Gonzales after the incumbent broke with party lines in 2022 to vote in favor of a bill that would strengthen gun safety laws. The measure came in response to a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which is located in Gonzales’s district.

That vote is what spurred Herrera to challenge Gonzales for his seat, telling gun rights activists at an event earlier this year that “if you vote against our interests, if you vote against gun rights, if you vote against the Constitution … we will challenge you, we will primary you and we will win. We will take your f***ing job.”

Herrera had the backing of Reps. Matt Gaetz, Bob Good (R-VA), and Ralph Norman (R-SC), and Eli Crane (R-AZ). Gonzales has the support of Gov. Greg Abbott and House GOP leadership, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

Gonzales expressed confidence in his electoral chances even with a handful of his Republican colleagues actively campaigning against him — even going so far as to warn that such efforts would not go unpunished.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“Here’s the deal: If somebody backs your opponent and goes to your district and does events [and] are giving your opponent money — they are trying to kill you politically. And you better believe them,” Gonzales told the Washington Examiner in an interview last week. “So your only option is to kill them politically. So I think there’s focus on Tuesday, and then we’re going to do a little purging of ourselves of our own.”

Gonzales will go on to face Democratic candidate Santos Limon in the November election. The district is rated as R+5 and is expected to lean Republican.