A firearms manufacturer known on social media as “The AK Guy” will be the Republican nominee in a conservative Texas border district that Democrats are monitoring after scandal-plagued Rep. Tony Gonzales abandoned his reelection campaign.
As demanded by House Republican leaders, Gonzales (R) is withdrawing from a May 26 Republican runoff election against Brandon Herrera, a pro-gun YouTuber who led Gonzales by 43%-42% in a four-candidate primary March 3 that produced no majority-vote nominee in Texas’s 23rd District. Gonzales’ departure makes Herrera the party nominee.
The 23rd District leans Republican and includes all or part of 27 counties stretching from El Paso to San Antonio and abutting the Rio Grande along most of the Texas-Mexico border. It favored President Donald Trump by 15 percentage points in the 2024 election, though Democrats may consider seriously competing for the seat given the turmoil on the Republican side in a midterm election year when they’re likely to make gains in the House.
About 59,000 voters participated in the 23rd District’s Democratic primary compared to 55,000 in the Republican primary. The Democratic nominee is Katy Padilla Stout, a lawyer and former teacher who raised about $45,000 through Feb. 11 compared with $869,000 for Herrera, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
“Now Gonzales is gone and House Republicans have added another casualty to their massive retirement list,” Justin Chermol, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “Good riddance.”
The DCCC is watching developments and hasn’t yet added the 23rd District to its list of 2026 “Districts In Play.” The nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates the contest as “Solid Republican.”
Herrera, who has 4.2 million subscribers on YouTube, won the Republican nomination under a Texas law that says if a runoff candidate withdraws, “the remaining candidate is considered to be elected and the runoff election for that office is not held.”
It’s a familiar scenario for Texas Republicans. In 2022, then-Rep. Van Taylor (R-Texas) ended his campaign after acknowledging an affair and getting pulled into a Republican runoff against Keith Self, a former county judge. Self became the Republican nominee and was elected in November.
Gonzales made “the appropriate decision,” Herrera wrote on X early Friday. “I look forward to being the voice of TX23 that our district deserves. From the border, to oil theft, water rights, data centers, and many other issues.”
Herrera almost ousted Gonzales in a 2024 Republican runoff, after Gonzales angered many activists for some party-bucking votes. Gonzales supported a gun-safety bill following a mass shooting of schoolkids in Uvalde, which is in the 23rd District.
Herrera was opposed in that contest by the United Democracy Project, a super-PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and the Republican Jewish Committee, which called him a “goose-stepping extremist who pals around with online Nazis.”
Gonzales has rebuffed calls to resign, which would shrink the tiny House Republican majority and require a special election. Republican leadership issued a joint statement earlier this week calling for him to end his reelection campaign, but not calling for his resignation.
“I have decided not to seek re-election while serving out the rest of this Congress with the same commitment I’ve always had to my district,” Gonzales wrote on X late Thursday, one day after acknowledging an affair with an aide who later died by suicide.
Of the 55 House members not seeking reelection in November, 34 are Republicans. Fourteen are retiring, 19 are seeking or sought other political office, and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) was unseated in the March 3 primary.
To contact the reporter on this story: