This article has been updated.
U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio) won all 29 counties in his district but it wasn’t enough to avoid a runoff with firearm salesman and YouTube personality Brandon Herrera.
Gonzales lost ground over Tuesday evening as votes were counted and dropped to 45.1% with all precincts in the Republican primary reporting, according to the Texas Secretary of State, under the 50% threshold to avoid a May 28 runoff. Herrera, known online as the AK Guy, had 24.7% of the vote.
In Bexar County, by far the most populous in the 23rd Congressional District, Gonzales earned 47.2% of the vote, with all voting centers tallied. In all, nearly half the votes cast in the 23rd District race were from Bexar.
Herrera was one of four Republicans to challenge the two-term congressman, who last year was censured by the state party, allowing GOP officials to campaign against him in the primary.
A couple dozen supporters gathered without Gonzales to eat barbecue and watch Super Tuesday returns on the edge of the DeZavala Road strip mall where his campaign office is located. Inside, a tiny war room of campaign aides watched a phalanx of computer screens.
A campaign spokesman came out about 9:45 p.m. to let them know Gonzales wouldn’t be making an appearance. Lots of votes remained outstanding, he told the dwindling crowd, and it was going to be a late night. The congressman had an early flight to catch in the morning, he said.
“Tonight we won all 29 counties in the 23rd District of Texas,” Gonzales’ campaign said in a statement at 11:30 p.m. “Next we’ll do it again, only with a larger margin.”
A spokeswoman for Herrera did not respond to a request for comment.
The 23rd Congressional District was once one of the most competitive U.S. House districts in the country, but was redrawn more favorably for Republicans after the 2020 census. It encompasses all or part of 29 counties, including northwest and southwest San Antonio, as well as hundreds of miles of the U.S. border with Mexico.
Gonzales, a Navy cryptologist who grew up in San Antonio’s Five Points neighborhood, won a heated primary to become his party’s nominee after then-U.S. Rep. Will Hurd decided not to seek reelection in 2020.
Since then he’s served on the coveted U.S. House Committee on Appropriations and been an ally of the business community, which has given generously to his campaigns.
Since Republicans took control of the House at the beginning of 2023, however, they have yet to pass real spending bills, instead relying on temporary agreements to keep the government open. Meanwhile, Gonzales’ brand of politics, which includes negotiating with both parties on those agreements, has come under scrutiny from more hard-line conservatives, leading to his censure.
This year Gonzales led negotiations on a bipartisan bill aimed at avoiding a government shutdown that could leave border patrol agents in his district without pay. The bill fell flat after former President Donald Trump criticized it, and Gonzales has said little about the path forward while fending off primary challengers, who all say they wouldn’t hesitate to force a shutdown.
In the Democratic primary for the 23rd District, Santos Limon, a civil engineer from Del Rio, defeated Lee Bausinger, a SAWS project engineer, taking about 58% of the vote.
20th Congressional District
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio), who underwent surgery to remove cancerous tumors last year, did not draw a primary challenger. No Republicans signed up to run against him in November, a failure some GOP activists bemoaned at the close of filing in December.
21st Congressional District
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs), did not draw a primary challenger either this year. He will face Democrat Kristin Hook, a biologist, in November.
Roy, who carried the bright red district with 63% of the vote in 2022, has been at the center of major intra-party divisions since Republicans took control of the U.S. House at the beginning of 2023.
He served as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s chief of staff during the 2013 government shutdown over Obamacare. Now as a congressman, he is again pushing GOP House leaders to hold spending bills hostage over border security.
Texas’ 21st Congressional District runs from Austin to San Antonio along Interstate 35, stretching west toward the Hill Country. It was redrawn to include more of Bexar County during redistricting, and Roy has become increasingly involved in local political campaigns.
28th Congressional District
After narrowly surviving back-to-back primary runoffs in 2020 and 2022, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) did not face a challenge from his own party this year.
National Republicans poured money into this district in 2022, but Cuellar defeated Cassy Garcia comfortably with 56.42% of the vote.
House Republicans’ congressional campaign arm is not targeting the district this year but Cuellar still drew four GOP challengers, including his former congressional staffer Jose Sanz, who said the Democratic Party has grown increasingly out of step with South Texas values.
Jay Furman, a retired commander in the U.S. Navy, will face Lazaro Garza Jr. in a May 28 runoff, according to AP projections.
35th Congressional District
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar also did not draw a Democratic primary opponent. The former Austin councilman won a crowded primary in 2022 to take this bright blue seat. Since then, he has become co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Five Republicans vied for the chance to face Casar in the barbell-shaped district, one of the most heavily Democratic in the state. Including part of South Austin, the district runs down Interstate 35 to encompass northern San Antonio.
With no one near the 50% threshold to avoid a runoff as of 9:30 p.m., Dave Cuddy led the Republican primary for the 35th District with 25.1% of the vote, followed by Michael Rodriguez with 23.7% and Steven Wright with 23.2%, with 62 of 251 precincts reporting.
