While conservative hard-liners looking to deny renomination to GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales have yet to consolidate behind a single alternative, that may start to change now that one far-right Texan has decisively outraised the other options.
Gunmaker Brandon Herrera, who has close to 3 million subscribers on his "The AK Guy" YouTube channel, took in $320,000 during the third quarter of the year, which wasn't far behind Gonzales' $350,000 haul. Thanks to his lengthy head start, though, the incumbent still ended September with a huge $1.7 million to $240,000 cash advantage.
But while Herrera still isn't anywhere close to matching Gonzales' war chest, he's so far the only challenger who has the resources to run a serious effort. Former ICE official Victor Avila, by contrast, had only $10,000 to spend, while a third opponent, Medina County GOP Chair Julie Clark, previously self-funded $390,000, but she finished last month with all of $135.44 left, and her interest in writing more checks to her campaign is unclear.
Punchbowl News reported in August that members of the far-right Freedom Caucus who are hungry to oust Gonzales met with each of these contenders, but the group still has yet to close ranks behind any member of this trio. Still, Herrera already has one infamous fan: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz used his guest-host slot on Newsmax to interview Herrera in August and called the contest "America's most exciting congressional Republican primary election." The primary is on March 5, but candidates need to win a majority to avert a May 28 runoff.
Gonzales defied his party's base by confirming Joe Biden's victory in the hours after the Jan. 6 attack and later supporting gun safety legislation after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, which took place in his district. The state GOP responded to his apostasies in March by censuring him, a move that bars him from receiving party help until after any runoffs take place.
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The congressman, though, remained defiant after his rebuke, responding in Spanish with what the Houston Chronicle characterized as "some words for the group that are probably too coarse for a family newspaper." In a tweet, Gonzales blasted the party's move as "puro pedo"—Mexican slang for "bullshit" that literally means "pure fart."
Gonzales went on to oppose Jim Jordan during all three recent votes to fill the House's vacant speakership; Herrera responded by tweeting, "Tony is one of a handful of holdout votes preventing @Jim_Jordan from becoming Speaker of the House, despite originally voting to keep @SpeakerMcCarthy, a weak turncoat Republican." (On Friday afternoon, 112 House Republicans voted to rescind Jordan's nomination as the party's preferred candidate for speaker, while just 86 wanted him to stay on.)
Gonzales' vast 23rd District, which stretches from the San Antonio suburbs west to the El Paso area, used to be competitive turf. Under its old borders, Gonzales unexpectedly flipped the district in 2020 as it was shifting from a 50-46 win for Hillary Clinton four years earlier to a narrow 50-48 victory for Donald Trump. But Texas' GOP-dominated legislature did what it could to ensure the seat would remain reliably red by stretching Trump's 2020 margin to 53-46 during the most recent round of redistricting, and Gonzales went on to take his second term 56-39 in a campaign that attracted little outside attention.
Gunmaker Brandon Herrera, who has close to 3 million subscribers on his "The AK Guy" YouTube channel, took in $320,000 during the third quarter of the year, which wasn't far behind Gonzales' $350,000 haul. Thanks to his lengthy head start, though, the incumbent still ended September with a huge $1.7 million to $240,000 cash advantage.
But while Herrera still isn't anywhere close to matching Gonzales' war chest, he's so far the only challenger who has the resources to run a serious effort. Former ICE official Victor Avila, by contrast, had only $10,000 to spend, while a third opponent, Medina County GOP Chair Julie Clark, previously self-funded $390,000, but she finished last month with all of $135.44 left, and her interest in writing more checks to her campaign is unclear.
Punchbowl News reported in August that members of the far-right Freedom Caucus who are hungry to oust Gonzales met with each of these contenders, but the group still has yet to close ranks behind any member of this trio. Still, Herrera already has one infamous fan: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz used his guest-host slot on Newsmax to interview Herrera in August and called the contest "America's most exciting congressional Republican primary election." The primary is on March 5, but candidates need to win a majority to avert a May 28 runoff.
Gonzales defied his party's base by confirming Joe Biden's victory in the hours after the Jan. 6 attack and later supporting gun safety legislation after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, which took place in his district. The state GOP responded to his apostasies in March by censuring him, a move that bars him from receiving party help until after any runoffs take place.
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The congressman, though, remained defiant after his rebuke, responding in Spanish with what the Houston Chronicle characterized as "some words for the group that are probably too coarse for a family newspaper." In a tweet, Gonzales blasted the party's move as "puro pedo"—Mexican slang for "bullshit" that literally means "pure fart."
Gonzales went on to oppose Jim Jordan during all three recent votes to fill the House's vacant speakership; Herrera responded by tweeting, "Tony is one of a handful of holdout votes preventing @Jim_Jordan from becoming Speaker of the House, despite originally voting to keep @SpeakerMcCarthy, a weak turncoat Republican." (On Friday afternoon, 112 House Republicans voted to rescind Jordan's nomination as the party's preferred candidate for speaker, while just 86 wanted him to stay on.)
Gonzales' vast 23rd District, which stretches from the San Antonio suburbs west to the El Paso area, used to be competitive turf. Under its old borders, Gonzales unexpectedly flipped the district in 2020 as it was shifting from a 50-46 win for Hillary Clinton four years earlier to a narrow 50-48 victory for Donald Trump. But Texas' GOP-dominated legislature did what it could to ensure the seat would remain reliably red by stretching Trump's 2020 margin to 53-46 during the most recent round of redistricting, and Gonzales went on to take his second term 56-39 in a campaign that attracted little outside attention.