In Texas’s 23rd congressional district, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) has been forced into a runoff against Second Amendment activist and small business owner Brandon Herrera.
On Tuesday, Gonzales failed to secure a majority of Republican primary votes and thus will head into a runoff election with Herrera who finished second in the race. Gonzales, most recently, was among 25 House Republicans who opposed Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) as Speaker of the House.
Herrera, whom Breitbart News interviewed last year, owns a small business in firearm manufacturing and calls himself a “Second Amendment Absolutist.”
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On key issues, Gonzales has increasingly found himself on the side of the Republican establishment.
In 2022, for example, Gonzales was the lone Republican from Texas’s congressional delegation to support the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” which President Joe Biden ultimately signed into law.
The law incentivizes states to impose red flag laws using taxpayer money, expands background checks for many gun buyers, and broadens the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) prohibited purchasers list by using domestic violence statutes to cover dating relationships.
Likewise, on immigration, Gonzales has sought to revive former President George W. Bush’s “Any Willing Worker” policy — suggesting that the nation’s federal immigration policy ought to be that “anybody who wants to come and work can do so,” neglecting the role of immigration on Americans’ wages and job prospects.
Gonzales also similarly opposed Rep. Chip Roy’s (R-TX) “Border Safety and Security Act” requiring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deport any illegal alien arriving at the southern border when the agency is unable to detain them.
“We can’t allow the Republican Party to be hijacked,” Gonzales said of Roy’s bill. “Trying to ban legitimate asylum claims — one, it’s not Christian, and two, to me, it’s very anti-American. So a lot is at stake.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
