After a sex scandal with a staffer led Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales to drop his re-election bid and resign from Congress, three candidates are vying to represent Texas’ largest congressional district by geographic area, which stretches from San Antonio to El Paso.
The race is one of the most competitive U.S. House races in the state.
Popular YouTuber Brandon Herrera is fighting to keep the district red, while attorney and former teacher Katy Padilla Stout is pushing to flip the seat back to blue.
Herrera, a Second Amendment activist, is a well-known social media personality with over 4 million YouTube subscribers.
He pursued a career in pre-law before focusing on building a small firearms manufacturing business.
“Brandon is a very strong constitutionalist who believes one of the keys to individual Liberty is limiting federal power as much as possible, and returning that power to the states to decide issues for themselves,” his campaign website states.
Herrera previously ran for the seat, but fell just about 400 votes short of defeating Gonzales in the 2024 GOP runoff.
Herrera, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump, has a history of making crude and controversial comments that have been criticized by members of both parties. His jokes about veteran suicide, which drew criticism from Mike Banks, President Trump’s former Border Patrol chief, and mockery of Trump’s son, Barron Trump.
The YouTuber also has made numerous Holocaust jokes and marched to Nazi music in one 2022 montage. His campaign has dismissed allegations of antisemitism as “bizarre, desperate and false.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added the race to its target list, signaling party leaders’ growing belief that they can flip the district.
Ahead of the March primary, Padilla Stout told KSAT that affordability and education are two top issues she has been focusing on in her campaign.
“If we can’t afford our day-to-day life, if we can’t have a decent standard of living for our citizens, then every other part of our society kind of collapses,” Padilla Stout said. “I’ve run on the platform of having or helping happy, healthy families.”
Ben Mendoza, who is running as an Independent, is based in El Paso. According to Ballotpedia, he previously and unsuccessfully ran for Mayor and councilmember for the City of El Paso, El Paso Independent School District school board, as well as Texas House District 16.
Texas’ 23rd Congressional District covers roughly 800 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, stretching from San Antonio to El Paso.
Historically, the district has brought a close race between both parties, flipping every few years through the early 2000s. But in the last decade, there has been a strong Republican hold on the congressional seat.
Rep. Tony Gonzales was running for his fourth term until he resigned earlier this year after a scandal-ridden campaign.
Last fall, KSAT Investigates first reported the death of his Uvalde-based aide, Regina Santos-Aviles, who died by suicide after setting herself on fire in September 2025. Gonzales avoided answering KSAT Investigates’ questions about his relationship with Santos-Aviles for months.
Sexually explicit text messages were later made public between the two.
Gonzales admitted to the affair just days after the March primary determined he would face Herrera in a runoff. The Republican representative dropped his bid for re-election shortly after.
After initially fighting calls for his departure, Gonzales resigned from Congress in April 2026, leaving the seat vacant.
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