Texas’ District 23 Pits RINO Against Popular Gun Rights Champion
Texas’ Republican Primary election is less than a week away. The Texas delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives has 38 members. That’s second only to California. Twenty-five of the Texas reps are Republican; 13 are Democrats.
Texas District 23 is big. Covering most of the southwest part of the state, its land area is about half the size of Georgia’s. It’s pretty much wide-open spaces with a fairly low population density.
District 23 has been a competitive seat for Republicans. Since January 2021, Tony Gonzales, a San Antonio native and Navy veteran, has represented District 23 in the House. Gonzales is a centrist-moderate Republican.
In May 2022, the wheels came off. The tragedy at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde sent Texas gun-grabbers into a frenzy, promoting the gun control snake oil like the fast-talking hustlers from the old-time medicine shows. With all the tears and lurid details about the victims, it should have been a sure thing.
The “blame-it-on-the-guns” strategy failed when much of the furor and outrage instead targeted the army of law enforcement officers that was not deployed while the killer was still active.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Texas Senator John Cornyn led a group of Republicans into an alliance with Democrats led by Connecticut Senator and gun-control zealot Chris Murphy to produce legislation to make it look like Congress was doing something
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 (BSCA) was the result. Joe Biden praised the bill and began perverting it as soon as his signature was dry.
Tony Gonzales was the only Texas Republican to vote in favor of the BSCA. He also voted against the Border Safety and Security Act.
In 2023, Texas Republicans censured Gonzales for his votes. He was only the second person to be censured by the party.
In August 2023, another wild card was added to the deck when Brandon Herrera tossed his hat in the ring. There was a whole lot of pearl-clutching as the outspoken and irreverent Herrera campaigned.
Brandon Herrera is a well-known GunTuber. Beginning in 2014, he has grown his channel to 4.18 million subscribers and gotten over 850 million views. A year later, he formed The AK Guy, a 07/02 FFL/SOT manufacturer focused on Kalashnikov rifles.
There were four candidates for the Republican nomination for District 23. Nobody got 50% of the total vote, so Texas state law calls for a runoff between the two candidates who received the largest number of votes.
The runoff was held on May 28, 2024. Gonzales won narrowly, by 354 votes.
Herrera’s political viewpoint is somewhere to the right of Gonzales’. He makes no pretense of being moderate or politically correct. From what I have seen, he enjoys talking and interacting with people.
One thing is for sure: Brandon Herrera will be a better friend to gun rights and the Second Amendment.
Texas District 23 truly is a battleground. Not between a Republican and a Democrat: between two Republicans.
To make an interesting election even more compelling, Tony Gonzales is now embroiled in a scandal concerning an alleged affair with a staff member who later took her own life. It will come as no surprise that Herrera has urged him to resign.
This race clearly needs popcorn.
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About Bill Cawthon
Bill Cawthon first became a gun owner 55 years ago. He has been an active advocate for Americans’ civil liberties for more than a decade. He is the information director for the Second Amendment Society of Texas.
