SAN ANTONIO — As House Republicans struggle to advance their agenda with a narrow majority, a primary runoff in a sprawling district along the Texas-Mexico border has emerged as a key test of how GOP voters want the party to govern.
Sophomore Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.), who fashions himself as a conservative pragmatist who likes to get things done, is confronting an unconventional challenger in Brandon Herrera, a pro-gun YouTube celebrity whose irreverent style has proved to be both an asset and vulnerability ahead of the May 28 runoff.
Herrera’s candidacy has been embraced by several of Gonzales’s hard-line conservative colleagues who see Herrera as a future ally in their uncompromising push for conservative principles in a chamber where they say House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) too often has been willing to work with Democrats.
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Gonzales has sought to tie Herrera to the turmoil wrought by the hard-line GOP faction that drove the ouster of former House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) last year and fought for months against a sweeping foreign aid package that finally passed last month on a bipartisan vote. Gonzales voted for it; Herrera said he “absolutely” would have opposed it.
“There is certainly an era of, just kind of, things are turned upside down,” Gonzales said in a recent interview. “This election will be a test of, ‘Who do you want? Someone who governs, or do you want someone who says crazy things on TV?’”
The race has taken on a new life since Gonzales said on CNN’s “State of the Union” last month that he serves with “some real scumbags” and singled out two GOP colleagues who have endorsed Herrera, Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and Bob Good (Va.). His comments prompted two more GOP hard-liners, Reps. Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, to back Herrera.
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During a March rally for Herrera in San Antonio, Gaetz said that Republicans were not making the most of their majority and that people like Herrera would “bring blunt force and disruption” to Washington as Republicans gear up for a possible second Donald Trump term.
“I want an excellent team of fighters, and sometimes that means not the usual, typical politicians,” Gaetz said. “Sometimes it means they’re a little rough around the edges at times — and that’s OK because that is what will save America.”
Johnson, who has warned members not to campaign against one another, visited San Antonio last week to headline a fundraiser for Gonzales. The next day, Gonzales landed the support of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), after Gonzales called attention to Herrera’s past comments referencing Abbott’s use of a wheelchair.
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“It sucks that it takes a governor in a wheelchair to actually stand up for something,” Herrera said on a February podcast while discussing Abbott’s leadership on the border — a compliment that nonetheless hit on a sensitive issue.
This is Gonzales’s first primary since breaking with his party on a handful of key issues, most notably voting for the bipartisan gun control law that passed in 2022, partly in response to the Uvalde school massacre in his district.
The gun vote provided a natural opening for Herrera, who boasts 3.3 million subscribers on YouTube as “The AK Guy” and owns a firearm manufacturer based in North Carolina. In his campaign announcement speech last year, Herrera said he was running because Gonzales “voted in favor of Biden’s post-Uvalde gun control.”
The runoff was triggered because no candidate cleared 50 percent in the March primary, with Gonzales getting 45 percent and Herrera receiving 25 percent, despite Gonzales’s big fundraising advantage and bravado about his political grit. He said last year he would take any challenger to the “deep end of the pool every single time and drown you.”
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Gonzales has continued to be a strong fundraiser in the runoff, entering April with $1.5 million in cash on hand to $302,000 for Herrera.
Gonzales has nonetheless taken Herrera seriously, moving early to get runoff voters focused on his podcast commentary.
For example, Gonzales, a Navy veteran, has highlighted a February episode in which Herrera recounted a joke that he decided not to use during a speech to a veterans suicide prevention conference.
Herrera, who is not a veteran but said he was well-acquainted with the military growing up in North Carolina, said this was the line he pulled: “If it makes everybody in the room feel better, I often think about putting a gun in my mouth, so I’m basically an honorary veteran.”
In the CNN interview, Gonzales referred to Herrera as a “known neo-Nazi,” apparently referring to a Jewish Insider report that pointed to instances of Herrera posting videos “replete with imagery, music and jokes about the Nazi regime and the Holocaust.” While Herrera has mostly ignored the month-old report, he said Sunday on X, “This should be obvious, but I am not, nor have I never been a neo-Nazi.”
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Herrera has said more broadly that Gonzales is desperate and taking his comments out of context.
Gonzales’s attacks came up repeatedly last month at a San Antonio campaign stop, where one attendee asked Herrera to address the veteran suicide joke, saying it “felt like a hornet’s sting when I heard that.” Herrera emphasized it was just a recitation of an aborted joke that his friend — a decorated veteran who was also on the podcast — had floated.
Gonzales unveiled a TV ad about the joke at a campaign news conference Tuesday and scoffed at Herrera’s explanation for it, saying, “You should never joke about suicide in any form or fashion, [much less] veteran suicide.”
Herrera has not shied from his irreverent style amid the attacks. Responding to an audience question in San Antonio about frustrations with the GOP in Congress, Herrera quipped, “Republicans who claim to protect you but then don’t — it’s like having a paraplegic goalie.”
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“He’s on your team, but he’s not helping,” Herrera said to scattered chuckles.
Thaddeus Cleveland, a sheriff in the district who once considered challenging Gonzales but now supports him, called Herrera “pretty young, pretty inexperienced.”
“It’s almost like when I was school board president,” Cleveland said. “Who do I want to represent me and my kiddos?”
Both candidates are making vigorous efforts to appeal to Trump, who has not made an endorsement.
Gonzales has highlighted comments that Herrera made poking fun at Trump’s 17-year-old son, Barron Trump, questioning whether Trump can win the general election and giving mixed reviews of his first term.
At his campaign stop, Herrera predicted Trump’s endorsement is one that Gonzales will “never get.” Herrera said Gonzales “stabbed [Trump] in the back” by scoring his endorsement in 2020 and then voting for a bipartisan independent commission to probe the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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Gonzales hosted Trump’s former primary rival, Nikki Haley, for a border tour last spring.
Gonzales insisted he “endorsed Trump on Day 1 of his election,” citing a supportive social media post that he made the day after Trump announced his comeback campaign in 2022. Herrera said in San Antonio that he has Trump-aligned friends — like former White House aide Sebastian Gorka — who have “been able to vouch for me.”
“They’re like, ‘This guy has been [with] Trump since Day 1,’” Herrera said.
Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the runoff.
Gonzales has also attacked Herrera over his roots in North Carolina, where records show he is still registered to vote. A Herrera campaign spokesperson said he has lived in San Antonio for three years and his Texas voter registration is pending a request to keep his address private for safety concerns.
Herrera’s campaign suggested North Carolina should do a better job of keeping its voter rolls updated, while election officials there suggested he needed to take action to remove his registration.
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