The race became a referendum on the San Antonio Republican’s vote to support a bipartisan gun control package after the Uvalde school shooting.
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The result was the culmination of months of feuding between the centrist Gonzales and the right-wing of the Republican Party — which spilled out into the open in the months ahead of the election, despite pleas from leadership and the rank-and-file to keep the fighting behind closed doors.in March last year for taking centrist stances that the more culturally conservative state party found objectionable.
Gonzales’ censure followed his opposition to a hardline border bill by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, and his support for bipartisan gun safety legislation after the Robb Elementary shooting. Speaking outside of a San Antonio polling location on Tuesday, Herrera said the amount of money Gonzales and House Republican leadership was pouring into the race showed his grassroots campaign was a real threat.
“It's my absolute honor to be in Congress, but I serve with some real scumbags,” Gonzales said in a CNN interview. “These people used to walk around with white hoods at night. Now they're walking around with white hoods in the daytime.
Gonzales is strategically important for Republican leadership beyond his ability to win a historically centrist seat. His relationships with moderate Republicans were an asset for leadership during the House Republican push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Gonzales was a vocal supporter of the effort and helped recruit more moderate members to the cause.
Gonzales criticized him for his jokes, saying they were not becoming of a member of Congress. He took particular offense to a joke Herrera made about veterans saying: “I often think about putting a gun in my mouth, so I’m basically an honorary veteran.” “He’s a YouTuber. He’s a comedian. He’s said things that, because it’s comedy, people might take it the wrong way and people just need to have a sense of humor about it,” she said.The district has historically voted for moderates of both parties, though it became more comfortably Republican after redistricting in 2021. The district voted for former President Donald Trump by 1.7 percentage points in 2020, but would have voted for Trump by 7.1 points with the new district lines.
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