Gonzales Barely Wins Republican Primary Runoff Against A “neo-Nazi”

Republicans’ radicalization was on full display in Texas this week.

At their Party convention this week, the Texas Republican Party asserted that the “greatest threat to American security and sovereignty” is undocumented immigrants. The centrality of nativist demagoguery is now far from surprising from a state that had previously sent two of its own to the White House committed to finding a path to reform and legal status. That sharp turn towards nationalist extremism was on full display this week. 

The Texas Republican Party’s convention garnered a lot of attention for proposals that would dilute the voting power of most of its citizens and abortion. But of course, anti-immigrant politicking was a key feature.

​​One proposal called for state and federal governments to devote all available resources to deporting undocumented immigrants, calling for the same sort of devastating promise of mass mobilization for mass deportation that the candidate at the top of the Republican ticket is making the central pledge of his campaign for the White House.     

As The Texas Tribune noted, the platform has been increasingly used as a basis for censuring Republican officeholders who fall out of step with rapid radicalization inside the party, and any seen to be lagging behind in the goose-stepping sprint towards extremism are flagged as a RINO ripe for some party discipline.  This includes Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio.

Both Gonzales and Phelen faced primary runoffs this week from challengers backed by prominent fellow Texas Republicans. Both prevailed, but with some razor-sharp margins. Gonzales won by 407 votes, while Phelan won by 366 votes. Both runoffs reveal the ugly and extreme state of the Republican Party that will continue to drag the GOP inside and outside of Texas further and further to the extremes.

Gonzales defeated Brandon Herrera, who was backed by some of Gonzales’ House GOP colleagues, like Reps. Chip Roy, Bob Good, and Matt Gaetz - and whom Gonzales described as a “neo-Nazi.” 

The district at the center of this race is home to Uvalde, the site of the horrific mass shooting that in 2022 took the lives of 19 schoolchildren and two of their beloved teachers. Herrera is known as a ‘gun influencer’ who uses the handle “TheAKGuy.” Gonzales's support for a gun-safety bill following the horrific mass murder, alongside hesitancy to embrace an extreme anti-immigrant legislation, were key to setting off his Republican colleagues’ ire. 

Herrera was vastly outspent in the race but came extremely close to knocking off a prominent incumbent. 

This race was viewed as a battle between the new insurgent right versus today’s version of the GOP establishment – as what passes for ‘establishment’ in the GOP isn’t exactly bastions or civil and responsible leadership upholding long-held norms. Gonzales was supported by much of that GOP leadership, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, plus GOP House leadership. Gonzales was the beneficiary of spending on his behalf by the House GOP leaders through their American Action Network (ANA). Several other super PACs added to the millions spent to defeat Herrera, including AIPAC’s super PAC and the Hispanic Leadership Alliance. The ANA spent over $1,0000,000 on an ad that features Gonzales saying, “I've advocated for deportation flights, raising credible fear standards, giving money to ICE and then surging immigration judges to the border. Doing nothing is not an option.” 

Meanwhile, Herrera, who came so close to toppling Gonzales, had the support of Freedom Caucus chair Good of Virginia and Florida Rep. Gaetz, who campaigned repeatedly with Herrera in the district - and got supportive comments from Rep. Roy while on white nationalist Steve Bannon’s podcast.

Herrera ran a Facebook ad video attacking Gonzales because he “betrayed President Trump by voting for the January 6th Commission. Then he betrayed Texas by sabotaging border security and refusing to back Governor Abbott…on the warpath against conservatives, calling them members of the Ku Klux Klan.” And as Herrera said in a straight-to-camera TV ad, “I am running for Congress because our nation is being invaded.” 

One debate between Herrera and Gonzales was literally whether or not Herrera is a neo-Nazi - the evidence was with Gonzales. A video of Herrera resurfaced where he “made Holocaust jokes and marched to a World War II-era German song.”

Jeff Singer at Daily Kos Elections wrote about the Gonzales attack strategy:

The congressman and his allies, though, have used their massive financial advantage to push their preferred narrative about Herrera, whom Gonzales has dubbed "a known neo-Nazi." Gonzales' side has highlighted Herrera's mockery of the Holocaust, veteran suicide, and even Barron Trump, and pointed out that he only relocated to Texas from North Carolina a few years ago.

Gonzales, for his part, talked a good game about not being a “crazy extremist” on immigration and blasting fellow Republicans as klansmen, but voted for the GOP’s extremely harsh H.R. 2, known as The Child Deportation Act, after calling the bill “un-Christian.” He then voted for the legislation again, as the House GOP sought to resurrect the abortive effort. Moreover, following his momentary lapse into a reasonable legislator, Gonzales ran to embrace Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her push to use white nationalist conspiracy theories for a sham impeachment of the DHS Secretary. He also voted twice for bogus resolutions related to the impeachment of President Biden.

Gonzales is not any kind of moderate in the real world. He’s just not as extreme as many of his fellow House GOP caucus members and Texas Republicans. He is a reliable GOP vote for extreme policies. Making this a telling inter-party fight as Gonzales’ votes for extreme anti-immigrant measures are not enough, and his own party and colleagues fight to replace him with man filtering with neo-Nazi tropes.

Then again, the leader of the Party is also peddling neo-Nazi tropes, so we guess we will eagerly wait for Gonzales's announcement that he will not support the “neo-Nazi” at the top of the ticket. 

We won’t hold our breath.      

But given Gonzales’ loyalty to GOP leadership, it behooves someone in the media to ask him if he supports the mass deportation military operation Donald Trump and the Texas GOP are campaigning on. His district would definitely feel an impact. 

On the local level Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan also won against an opponent who had the support of Donald Trump and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. 

Phelan backed the impeachment of Paxton, who then worked hard to defeat him. After Phelan was declared the winner, Paxton issued a statement, “On Dale Phelan Stealing the Election,” where he stated, “My message to Austin is clear: to those considering supporting Dade Phelan as Speaker in 2025, ask your 15 colleagues who lost re-election how they feel about their decision now. You will not return if you vote for Dade Phelan again!”

By no stretch of anyone’s imagination is Phelan anything but a hard-edged Republican. But, that’s no longer enough in the Texas GOP. The Speaker has also drawn the ire of anti-immigrant and racist entities. Last year, Texans for Strong Borders dropped a $227K TV ad buy attacking Phelan for failing to make the white nationalist migrant “invasion” conspiracy theory the official position of the state. 

Last December, Phelan was attacked in islamophobic mailers. The group that sent the mailers has ties to Texans for Strong Borders, according to The Texas Tribune:

The cards were paid for by Cary Cheshire, a longtime right-wing activist who was previously the vice president of Empower Texans. Cheshire is currently the executive director for Texans For Strong Borders, a right-wing group that has been increasingly influential in pushing lawmakers to crack down on legal and illegal immigration. Texans For Strong Borders is led by Chris Russo, who the Tribune recently reported was behind numerous, anonymous social media accounts that were full of racist posts. Russo is also an ally of white supremacist and Adolf Hitler admirer Nick Fuentes.

This all happened around the same time that the Executive Committee of the Texas Republican Party voted down a proposal that stated, “the Republican Party of Texas have no association whatsoever with any individual or organization that is known to espouse anti-Semitism, pro-Nazi sympathies, or Holocaust denial.” In the wake of that vote,  Popular Information reported: “Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) called the vote ‘despicable’ and lamented that the Texas GOP ‘can’t even bring themselves to denounce neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers.’” 

The resolution was prompted because of associations between a leading Republican and the aforementioned white supremacist Nick Fuentes. More from our colleague Gabe Ortíz HERE.

Yesterday’s primaries yielded results that were considered victories for the “establishment.” But the elections and the state party convention foreshadow a continued dark future ahead that we cannot afford to ignore. 

Ken Paxton, who Trump would consider making U.S. Attorney General, appears ready to continue his war against Phelan. As widely reported, the long-standing felony securities charges against the state’s leading law enforcement officer were dropped in March, “as long as he pays full restitution to his victims, and completes 100 hours of community service and 15 hours of legal ethics education.” Also, “A federal investigation has been probing some of the same charges presented in his impeachment and former aides who reported Paxton to the FBI are trying to make him testify in a whistleblower civil lawsuit.”