[People voting. Photo Credit to Pexels]

In a closely contested Republican primary runoff, incumbent U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales narrowly defeated gun-rights activist and YouTuber Brandon Herrera, dubbed “the AK Guy”, by around 400 votes.

Both candidates ran aggressive campaigns and fundraisers; the former raised over $4.4 million, while the latter raised $1.3 million.

Despite this relatively large monetary gap, Gonzales won by a mere 1.4 percentage points.

Gonzales, who has represented District 23 since 2021, boasts a distinguished military career.

He served 20 years in the Navy as a cryptologist in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Asia.

He rose to the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer before his retirement in 2019.

His post-military career includes fellowships for the Department of Defense and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

In 2020, he returned to his Texan roots and decided to run for the District 23 House seat.

He won the election against Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones by 4 percentage points and Libertarian Beto Villela by 47.8 points.

He ran again in 2022 and beat his Democratic opponent, John Lira, by 17.1 points.

During his terms, Gonzales has served on the Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on Homeland Security.

While he has supported traditional right-wing policies such as pro-life legislation, he has also diverged from his party on several issues.

Notably, in March 2023, the Texas GOP censured Gonzales for his support of same-sex marriages and firearm restrictions, as well as for being the only Republican legislator who voted “nay” on the Border Safety and Security Act of 2023.

Gonzales is one of two politicians to have been censored by the state party.

In response, his campaign emphasized Gonzales’s focus on policymaking over party politics.

They issued a harsh rebuke against the GOP stating, “Today, like every day, Congressman Tony Gonzales went to work on behalf of the people of TX-23...The Republican Party of Texas would be wise to follow his lead and do some actual work."

Although the Texas GOP and Governor Greg Abbott continued to support Gonzalez, he won the primary by a very slim margin against Brandon Herrera.

Herrera, a North Carolina native, is a firearms manufacturer and popular YouTuber known for his firearm and comedy content.

Some of his Republican counterparts have expressed concern over his crass jokes about women, the Holocaust, veterans, and other sensitive topics scattered around the internet.

To address these concerns, he uploaded a YouTube monologue in which he contends that he can maintain his composure when the time calls for it, noting that “it’s all about knowing the time and place.”

Despite his controversial comments, Gonzales has amassed over 3.4 million followers over the course of nine years.

Herrera’s campaign focused on protecting Second Amendment rights, earning endorsements from pro-gun groups such as the National Association for Gun Rights and Gun Owners of America.

Gun rights are a compassionate issue in District 23, which was the site of the tragic Uvalde school shooting in May 2022.

Gonzales was the representative at the time of the shooting and worked on a bipartisan bill called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act for gun violence prevention.

Gonzales now prepares to face Democrat Santos Limon, a civil engineer, in the general election this November.

Limon won his Democratic runoff against Lee Bausinger by 17 percentage points.

The upcoming election will determine whether Gonzales continues his work in Congress.