{"id":189844,"date":"2026-03-04T09:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T09:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/189844\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T09:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T09:40:09","slug":"tony-gonzales-brandon-herrera-head-to-a-runoff-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/189844\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Gonzales, Brandon Herrera head to a runoff rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a race rocked by scandal, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales<\/a> (R-San Antonio) is now headed to another primary runoff with YouTuber Brandon Herrera<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Herrera held Gonzales under 50% in their 2024 primary as well, when the incumbent was facing major pushback<\/a> for crossing the aisle on votes supporting same-sex marriage and gun safety.<\/p>\n

This year Gonzales has much bigger problems, after text messages indicated he\u2019d been having an affair with<\/a> a staff member who later died by suicide.\u00a0Since then some of his Republican colleagues in Congress have been calling for him to resign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With 193 of 371 precincts reporting just after 1 a.m., Gonzales was at 43.03% of the vote to Herrera\u2019s 42.24% in a four-way GOP primary.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

This year he\u2019s a much stronger candidate with more experience and more money<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At a recent candidate forum hosted by the Alamo Pachyderm Club, Herrera likened the pair\u2019s rematch to Sylvester Stallone\u2019s Rocky movies, where few expected a \u201cnobody off the street with no prior experience to be able to go toe-to-toe\u201d with a formidable incumbent.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven 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,\u201d he told the crowd of about 100 people at the Schertz\u00a0Civic Center. \u201cThis cycle, I call it Rocky II. \u2026 It\u2019s not until Rocky II where he actually wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither candidate held a public watch party Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

The Republican primary runoff will be held May 26.<\/p>\n

\"\"Katy Padilla Stout, candidate for U.S. House Texas District 23, speaks at the Tejano Democrats SD26 endorsement forum at Luby\u2019s on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026 in San Antonio. Credit: Salgu Wissmath for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Democrats scrambled to recruit a candidate with national fundraising experience,San Antonio attorney Katy Padilla Stout<\/a>, in hopes that she can capitalize on a drawn-out Republican primary battle.<\/p>\n

Stout is an attorney on the Bexar County Child Welfare Board who faced three other Democrats seeking their party\u2019s nomination, including 2024 nominee Santos Limon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With 189 of 371 precincts reporting just after 1 a.m., she was taking 52.22% of the vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a race rocked by scandal, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio) is now headed to another primary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8519,27900,75429,82,84,83,75430,54950,2566,3028],"class_list":["post-189844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-2026-election","tag-brandon-herrera","tag-katy-padilla-stout","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-santos-limon","tag-texas-23rd-congressional-district","tag-tony-gonzales","tag-typedaily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}