In a race rocked by scandal, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio) is now headed to another primary runoff with YouTuber Brandon Herrera.
Herrera held Gonzales under 50% in their 2024 primary as well, when the incumbent was facing major pushback for crossing the aisle on votes supporting same-sex marriage and gun safety.
This year Gonzales has much bigger problems, after text messages indicated he’d been having an affair with a staff member who later died by suicide. Since then some of his Republican colleagues in Congress have been calling for him to resign.
With 193 of 371 precincts reporting just after 1 a.m., Gonzales was at 43.03% of the vote to Herrera’s 42.24% in a four-way GOP primary.
The tightened race is a big change from 2024, when Gonzales took 47.2% of the vote in a crowded race and won all 29 counties in the massive 23rd Congressional District.
Herrera took just 24.7% in the first round that year, but still went on to come roughly 400 votes shy of unseating the incumbent in the runoff.
This year he’s a much stronger candidate with more experience and more money.
At a recent candidate forum hosted by the Alamo Pachyderm Club, Herrera likened the pair’s rematch to Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky movies, where few expected a “nobody off the street with no prior experience to be able to go toe-to-toe” with a formidable incumbent.
“Even though we got thrown up against one of the best-funded Republican incumbents in the entire state of Texas, we went to the runoff, and we lost by only 400 votes,” he told the crowd of about 100 people at the Schertz Civic Center. “This cycle, I call it Rocky II. … It’s not until Rocky II where he actually wins.”
Neither candidate held a public watch party Tuesday night.
The Republican primary runoff will be held May 26.
Democrats scrambled to recruit a candidate with national fundraising experience,San Antonio attorney Katy Padilla Stout, in hopes that she can capitalize on a drawn-out Republican primary battle.
Stout is an attorney on the Bexar County Child Welfare Board who faced three other Democrats seeking their party’s nomination, including 2024 nominee Santos Limon.
With 189 of 371 precincts reporting just after 1 a.m., she was taking 52.22% of the vote.
