by Aaron Bandler
Brendan Steinhauser, a Texas GOP strategist, told JNS that Rep. Tony Gonzales will likely pull off a narrow victory against Brandon Herrera again.
On Dec. 18, U.S. President Donald Trump offered his “complete and total endorsement” of Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), as the moderate Republican seeks re-election in the state’s 23rd Congressional District.
Trump called Gonzales “a terrific representative” and stated that “a retired master chief petty officer from the U.S. Navy, who bravely deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, Tony knows the wisdom and courage that is required to defend our country, support our brave military/veterans and ensure peace through strength.”
Gonzalez, who faces a close primary challenge again from a YouTuber who has made references to Nazis that critics have called antisemitic, has also received accolades from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. (The primary is on March 3.)
As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Gonzales, who traveled to Israel in February 2022 with an AIPAC partner, has voted to fund the Jewish state and co-sponsored legislation supporting Israel after Oct. 7, and he co-sponsored bills sanctioning the Iranian regime, the pro-Israel group states on its site.
The congressman has said, “I am both enraged and horrified by the brutal attacks being carried out by Hamas against Israel” and “fully stand by our close ally as it defends itself against these terrorists,” AIPAC notes. “Israel has the ability and the right to abandon its measured, targeted approach and use full force to completely annihilate Hamas.”
His primary challenger, again, is Brandon Herrera, a gun manufacturer with 4.18 million followers on YouTube. He has been criticized for videos in which he fired Nazi-made weapons, referred to a gun as being the “original ghetto blaster” and said “for the Fatherland” while firing a weapon.
Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican strategist in Texas, told JNS that “we should have a zero-tolerance policy in the party about antisemitism or promoting or even frankly mentioning things like that.”
“Unfortunately, antisemitism is having a moment right now on the right and the left,” said Steinhauser, who thinks that supporters of Holocaust deniers and antisemites Nick Fuentes and Candace Owen on the right are “overplaying their hand.”
“The data is clear. The vast majority of Republicans support Israel and oppose antisemitism, so the very online community is not necessarily in line with where the voters are who actually vote in primaries and vote in general elections,” he told JNS.
Gonzales’s “tone, his style and his substance are all a little more moderate, but he is still very conservative,” Steinhauser said. A Republican like Gonzales can likely keep the district red. (JNS sought comment from Gonzales.)
“I’m not trying to tip the scales one way or the other—like people should go vote for who they want to vote for, but I just think people have to consider that make-up of the district and say, ‘OK. Who is going to keep this seat in a big election year where the Democrats are going to have a lot of momentum?’” he said.
In 2024, Gonzalez beat Herrera in the primary by 354 votes, or 1.2 percentage points—15,023 votes (50.6%) to 14,669 (49.4%).
Gonzales “represents the Republican regulars, the mainstream of the GOP, if you will,” while Herrera is “an insurgent candidate,” who is probably going to be outraised and outspent by a 5-1 or 6-1 ratio, according to Steinhauser. Herrera “is ballot-tested and he had a base from last time, so it’s a competitive race,” Steinhauser added.
Two other Republican candidates are listed on the ballot—attorney Francisco Canseco and Keith Barton, who, according to his campaign website, is a manager at Texas First Rentals and runs his own drone company. Herrera is the “main opposition” to the incumbent, Steinhauser told JNS.
As of Dec. 31, Gonzales had $1.77 million in total receipts and $2.48 million in cash on hand, per Federal Election Commission data. In that same timeframe, Herrera had $864,186.58 in total receipts and $721,738.24 in cash.
The district, which includes parts of the El Paso and San Antonio metropolitan areas, is “fascinating,” because it “spans 800 miles with a lot of small towns and some border towns,” according to Steinhauser. Immigration and border security are important issues there, he said.
In 2023, the Republican Party of Texas censured Gonzales after he voted for a gun control law the prior year. Uvalde, the site of the May 24, 2022, mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, is part of the 23rd Congressional District.
Herrera “made the race about guns and gun rights and other issues,” and “guns are still kind of an issue in the race,” Steinhauser told JNS. He noted recent events in Minnesota, where federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis. Gun-rights groups have decried some Trump administration officials, who have said the agents acted in self-defense, since Pretty was carrying a legal firearm.
“It’s very much in the news,” Steinhauser said. “The right is talking about it, as we always are, but we’re talking about it a lot right now, because there are people in the party that are saying things that are not exactly aligned with where the voters are.
“I think that’s creating space for candidates like Brandon to talk about the differences, talk about the discrepancy,” he said.
Herrera stated in April 2024, after Gonzales told CNN that he is a “known neo-Nazi,” that “I am not, nor have I ever been a neo-Nazi,” and “my entire political philosophy is the opposite of fascism.”
That kind of statement hasn’t changed the thinking of the Republican Jewish Coalition, which backed Gonzales in 2024 and is doing so again.
The RJC has previously referred to Herrera as “a goose-stepping extremist.” Sam Markstein, the coalition’s national political director, told JNS that the group “takes on these tough fights.”
“Congressman Gonzales is a proven winner in an important district,” Markstein said. “The majority is very, very thin right now, so every single one of these races absolutely matters.”
“Congressman Gonzales is a very strong pro-America, pro-Israel Republican” and is “very, very strong on U.S. national security” and “strong on the border,” he said.
Gonzales has also “been an indispensable ally to the Jewish community and a strong supporter of strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance,” Markstein told JNS. “We’re going to continue to support him in 2026, and what exactly the contours of that support look like are to be announced.”
“Herrera has no credibility on any of these issues,” Markstein said. “He mocked veterans. He really is someone who should not be in Congress.”
‘Gotten to know him on a personal level’
Steinhauser thinks that Gonzales will hang onto the seat in the primary, “given the financial advantage, given the fact that you have the incumbent running again,” though he expects a close race.
“If it’s a tie polling-wise or if it’s like a close race, then I think you have to bet on the incumbent, who’s going to outspend the challenger by 5-to-1 or whatever, and I think that’s probably the case here,” he said.
The 2024 primary led to a runoff between Gonzales and Herrera. If no candidate passes the 50% plus a vote threshold, there would be another runoff this year.
Steinhauser believes it’s a “coin toss” whether there will be a runoff. If there is one, Gonzales has “a good shot there and probably is the favorite,” he said.
Markstein told JNS that the RJC hopes Gonzales will clear the threshold to avoid a runoff. But if there is a runoff, “he’s won those races. He’s a proven winner at winning close elections.”
“We fully expect Congressman Gonzales to continue his track record of winning,” he said.
Rabbi Avraham Scheinberg of Congregation Rodfei Sholom, an Orthodox synagogue in San Antonio with 250 families, including those from Reform, Conservative and secular backgrounds, told JNS that Gonzales “works very closely with our community.”
Several months ago, someone drew a knife on some of his congregants as they left the synagogue. Gonzales “got the Department of Justice to make sure that they take a look at it,” and the congressman “took a meeting with us,” Scheinberg told JNS. “It was not hard to get that.”
“He was there to help us,” the rabbi said.
Scheinberg said that Gonzales is “definitely someone who is very much looking out for the community, looking out for the minorities in the community, not just the Jewish community.
“I know this is the experience of other communities here as well that are in this district,” he told JNS.
Gonzales has visited the synagogue and shaken hands with members. “People have really gotten to know him on a personal level and seen he’s a good person,” he said, “that he’s an honest person and he’s really there for them.”
“Any time that we’ve reached out as a community, he’s been very helpful in making sure that the right thing is done and that he represents us correctly,” despite the large area the congressman covers, the rabbi said.
Scheinberg doesn’t know Herrera personally, but told JNS that “there definitely seem to be some videos that are disturbing.”
“We don’t want someone who’s going to represent us that we have a question about, obviously,” he said. “There’s a lot of things going on nationwide with antisemitism, and so even if he is or if he’s not—I don’t know—we definitely don’t want any question about someone that is.”
“Even if the perception is that he is not so pro-Jewish, maybe antisemitic, that itself is very damaging,” Scheinberg said. “It’s not only about the person themselves that’s in office. It’s about the people here feeling empowered and emboldened by who’s in office.”
“If he has a reputation for being an antisemite and he gets voted in, then regardless of if he is or not, the people here that are antisemites in San Antonio are going to feel emboldened,” the rabbi told JNS. “They’re going to feel that they can do things now.”
Aaron Bandler
Source: https://www.jns.org/texas-republican-faces-another-close-primary-challenge-from-youtuber-who-has-used-nazi-imagery/
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