On Tuesday evening, incumbent Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales narrowly bested his far-right challenger Brandon Herrera, of shooting-guns-on-Youtube fame, by a little more than one percentage point in the pair’s GOP runoff contest for Texas Congressional District 23. Gonzales, a combative politician with some moderate views, will likely win reelection comfortably in November and continue to represent Texas’ politically mercurial 23rd, a majority-Latino and solidly Republican district that sprawls across 29 counties from San Antonio to El Paso.
The result appears to expose some limits to the influencer-turned-politician model, at least in this strangely cut swath of the Lone Star State, and is likely good news for Republicans aiming to hold onto their small majority in the U.S. House this fall.
Herrera, a recent San Antonio transplant in his late twenties, has a Youtube channel with more than 3 million followers on which he posts videos of himself firing, handling, and talking at length about various firearms—accompanied by commentary that some, it would seem, find humorous. He’s used his platform to make light of both the Holocaust (referring to a certain German gun as “the original ghetto blaster” and “Hitler’s street sweeper”) and the Troubles in Ireland. Herrera has also jested about high veteran suicide rates, and, in comments perhaps especially offensive to a GOP primary electorate, he’s joined in mockery of ex-President Donald Trump’s youngest son.
