Pro gun rights YouTuber Brandon Herrera said he will request a recount of his primary runoff against U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzáles after losing by a little over 400 votes.
The firebrand activist told The Texas Tribune that he doesn't expect the results to change but that he "owes" it to his "volunteers, voters and supporters to leave no stone unturned." Concretely, he will request the recounts in Bexar, El Paso, Medina and Uvalde.
Texas' 23rd Congressional District is the largest by land area, spanning 29 counties. It garnered national attention as it illustrated the struggle between the party's establishment and an even more conservative new guard.
In fact, Gonzáles was among just two House incumbents who managed to hold his seat, with six others losing their runoffs. These results show a surge of anti-establishment energy that had already led to the ouster of nine House Republicans in the March primary, according to The Texas Tribune.
Among his most moderate views, Gonzales supported a gun-safety bill after the 2022 Uvalde School shooting— which happened in his district. His support of the bill brought major criticism from Herrera and other hard right politicians. In fact, it led to the state's Republican Party to formally censor him.
Herrera had the support of several national GOP figures who had openly blasted Gonzáles for some of his votes. The Representative, in turn, called them "scumbags" and "klansmen."
"It's my absolute honor to be in Congress, but I serve with some real scumbags like [Florida Congressman] Matt Gaetz. He paid minors to have sex with them at drunk parties," Gonzales said. He also called out Rep. Bob Good and criticized him for endorsing Herrera, who he called a "known neo-Nazi."
Amid criticism from his own party, Gonzalez told CBS News in a recent interview that hard-right lawmakers and Herrera aren't "serious people."
"There's a bigger battle happening outside this race, and it is what the future of the Republican party is going to look like," he said. "Is it going to be governing conservatives like myself, or is it going to be these bomb-throwing gestures that want to come up here and burn the place down?"
González, however, had received a powerful endorsement from Gov. Greg Abbott, who in late April praised him for fighting for border security measures in Congress. "He represents more than two-thirds of the Texas-Mexico border and knows the dangerous consequences that President Joe Biden's reckless open border policies have on our state—and our nation," Abbott said in a statement back then.
If the recount happens and stands, Gonzales will face Democrat Santos Limon in the November general election.
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