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The race for Texas’ 23rd District was guaranteed to be troubling. Headed into the Republican primaries, the incumbent, Rep. Tony Gonzales, was facing one of the ugliest sex scandals in recent political history. His main opponent, Brandon Herrera, is famous as a gun influencer from Uvalde, the site of a horrific mass shooting at an elementary school, and had come under fire for making light of the mass murder of Jews. The majority-Hispanic district, a huge stretch of land along the Mexican border, was set to elect either a man accused of horrific sexual misconduct or a man known as the AK guy, who likes Nazi jokes.

The two had previously run against each other in the 2024 GOP primary, with Gonzales narrowly beating Herrera in a runoff.

But in 2026, Gonzales’ scandal turned out to be the greater liability. In late February, it was revealed that Gonzales had had an affair with a female staffer in 2024; on Sept. 13, 2025, the staffer died from self-immolation after blaming the affair for her marriage’s disintegration. Texts provided by the staffer’s ex-husband showed Gonzales pressuring the staffer, even as she expressed discomfort with the situation. Gonzales did eventually admit to the affair. He kept his campaign going, however, and on Tuesday was forced into a runoff with Herrera. On Thursday, Republicans urged Gonzales to step aside, and that night he ended his campaign. Now, because of a recent redistricting that turned........

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