Last night, the people of Texas’ 23rd Congressional District sent a message: they’re done with Tony Gonzales and his betrayal of our shared conservative values.
Tony sabotaged fellow Republicans’ border reform bill and called it “anti-American” and “not Christian.” When Tony’s own district was being overrun with illegals, every other Republican member of Congress backed Texas Governor Abbott in his fight to secure the border except Tony. Instead, Tony voted to send $40 billion taxpayer dollars to defend Ukraine’s border.
Tony voted for Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates and to fund a $400 million federal vaccine tracking database that would enable the government to deny employment and benefits to individuals who refused experimental vaccines.
He voted to keep our soldiers in Syria where they are dying for no national interest. He voted to authorize warrantless wiretaps of American citizens. He voted for taxpayer-funded abortions and to allow government persecution of religious organizations that support traditional marriage.
He voted with Democrats for the January 6th Commission to prosecute and imprison President Trump and allowed himself to be a prop in Nikki Haley’s campaign ads.
And when it was time to hold the leadership of local law enforcement accountable for the tragedy in Uvalde, he instead blamed law-abiding citizens and supported Joe Biden’s gun control bill that funds unconstitutional Red Flag laws and takes 2nd Amendment rights away from veterans.
These are all the reasons that a clear majority of Republicans in the district voted against him yesterday, but his response is to call these voters crazy and say he needs to “drown” them.
Last night, he found out we’re a little more buoyant than he thought.
Last night, the people of Texas’ 23rd Congressional District sent a message: they’re done with Tony Gonzales and his betrayal of our shared conservative values.
I like Brandon, but this is a stretch considering that Gonzales got ~45 percent of the vote in the primary. Brandon needs to about double his portion of the vote to win the runoff, whereas Gonzales only needs to increase his portion by about 10 percent. His best hope is that all the people that didn't vote for Gonzales decide to turn out and vote for him, and that a bunch of the people that did vote for Gonzales don't turn out for the runoff.
I hope he wins, because I really do think he's what the country needs if we're going to (peacefully) turn this ship around, but I don't like his odds today as much as I did before election day.
It's not great odds, no denying that, but I feel he did better than I would have expected. As far as I'm aware, Brandon hasn't been endorsed by Trump, nor has he been funded by any internal MAGA movement yet, so I think the showing is pretty strong for that kind of a candidate.
He needs a proper Trump endorsement to get over the hump.
I'll admit that I don't know much about how votes tend to go in runoffs, but while I'd agree that ~55% of the primary voters voted for "Not Gonzales", I don't see how that means Herrera picks up the ~30 percentage points worth of those voters who didn't vote for him, especially given the particulars here. Gonzales is (or perhaps was) an establishment Republican politician, whose policies probably put him generally Auth-Center on a political compass. Herrera is a gunmaker and youtuber whose stated political beliefs would probably put him somewhere between Lib-Center and Lib-Right on a political compass. Herrera is also young, foul mouthed, and irreverent, which aren't things that I see the typical Republican primary voter supporting.
Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe I'm a bit blackpilled on "conservatism", but I feel like it's more likely that the things I brought up cost Brandon 20 percent of the "undecided" voters in the runoff (most likely by simply not showing up) than that the "Not Gonzales" voters unify behind him as a bloc.
Let's Go Brandon's Comment:
Last night, the people of Texas’ 23rd Congressional District sent a message: they’re done with Tony Gonzales and his betrayal of our shared conservative values.
Tony sabotaged fellow Republicans’ border reform bill and called it “anti-American” and “not Christian.” When Tony’s own district was being overrun with illegals, every other Republican member of Congress backed Texas Governor Abbott in his fight to secure the border except Tony. Instead, Tony voted to send $40 billion taxpayer dollars to defend Ukraine’s border.
Tony voted for Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates and to fund a $400 million federal vaccine tracking database that would enable the government to deny employment and benefits to individuals who refused experimental vaccines.
He voted to keep our soldiers in Syria where they are dying for no national interest. He voted to authorize warrantless wiretaps of American citizens. He voted for taxpayer-funded abortions and to allow government persecution of religious organizations that support traditional marriage.
He voted with Democrats for the January 6th Commission to prosecute and imprison President Trump and allowed himself to be a prop in Nikki Haley’s campaign ads.
And when it was time to hold the leadership of local law enforcement accountable for the tragedy in Uvalde, he instead blamed law-abiding citizens and supported Joe Biden’s gun control bill that funds unconstitutional Red Flag laws and takes 2nd Amendment rights away from veterans.
These are all the reasons that a clear majority of Republicans in the district voted against him yesterday, but his response is to call these voters crazy and say he needs to “drown” them.
Last night, he found out we’re a little more buoyant than he thought.
I like Brandon, but this is a stretch considering that Gonzales got ~45 percent of the vote in the primary. Brandon needs to about double his portion of the vote to win the runoff, whereas Gonzales only needs to increase his portion by about 10 percent. His best hope is that all the people that didn't vote for Gonzales decide to turn out and vote for him, and that a bunch of the people that did vote for Gonzales don't turn out for the runoff.
I hope he wins, because I really do think he's what the country needs if we're going to (peacefully) turn this ship around, but I don't like his odds today as much as I did before election day.
It's not great odds, no denying that, but I feel he did better than I would have expected. As far as I'm aware, Brandon hasn't been endorsed by Trump, nor has he been funded by any internal MAGA movement yet, so I think the showing is pretty strong for that kind of a candidate.
He needs a proper Trump endorsement to get over the hump.
I'll admit that I don't know much about how votes tend to go in runoffs, but while I'd agree that ~55% of the primary voters voted for "Not Gonzales", I don't see how that means Herrera picks up the ~30 percentage points worth of those voters who didn't vote for him, especially given the particulars here. Gonzales is (or perhaps was) an establishment Republican politician, whose policies probably put him generally Auth-Center on a political compass. Herrera is a gunmaker and youtuber whose stated political beliefs would probably put him somewhere between Lib-Center and Lib-Right on a political compass. Herrera is also young, foul mouthed, and irreverent, which aren't things that I see the typical Republican primary voter supporting.
Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe I'm a bit blackpilled on "conservatism", but I feel like it's more likely that the things I brought up cost Brandon 20 percent of the "undecided" voters in the runoff (most likely by simply not showing up) than that the "Not Gonzales" voters unify behind him as a bloc.
Brandon got more votes than I would have expected. Therefore, I won't count him out having got this far.