Republican Tony Gonzales, a former Navy cryptologist and professor on the College of Maryland, has claimed victory in a decent race to fill the
Republican Tony Gonzales, a former Navy cryptologist and professor on the College of Maryland, has claimed victory in a decent race to fill the emptiness left by Rep. Will Hurd in Texas’s 23rd Congressional District, dashing Democrats’ hopes of selecting up the seat.
The San Antonio native had acquired an endorsement from President Donald Trump and was a part of the Nationwide Republican Marketing campaign Committee’s “Younger Weapons” program, which goals to recruit and help candidates in battleground districts.
His opponent, Gina Ortiz Jones, a former Air Drive intelligence officer, had related backing from the nationwide Democratic celebration. She was among the many first spherical of congressional candidates added to the Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee’s “Pink to Blue” program, which goals to help Democratic candidates attempting to flip GOP-held districts and offers them an edge in fundraising. She had additionally snagged endorsements from former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Gonzales had sought to make the race about defending Texans from the affect of coastal liberals and defending conservative values, together with his anti-abortion stance. At one level, he even ran an advert falsely claiming that Ortiz Jones lived in Washington, DC.
“Once I discuss concerning the American dream, after I speak about combating for the American dream — I’m the American dream,” Gonzales advised the Texas Tribune in October. “So this district represents me, represents my values, and I characterize them and their values.”
The 23rd District, which is huge and stretches from San Antonio to the US-Mexico border, has been aggressive in latest elections. Ortiz Jones beforehand ran for the seat in 2018, narrowly shedding to Hurd, who has usually spoken out towards Trump’s rhetoric and is retiring this 12 months. However it was additionally certainly one of 5 districts represented by Republicans in Congress that backed Hillary Clinton in 2016, and it went to former Democratic Congress member Beto O’Rourke in his finally failed 2018 bid for the Senate.
Very like different Democrats, Ortiz Jones made preserving the Inexpensive Care Act amid the pandemic a pillar of her marketing campaign. She sought to distinction herself with Gonzales, who has known as the well being care legislation “damaged” and supported Republican efforts to repeal and exchange it whereas saying he would protect protections for preexisting situations. He advised the Texas Tribune that he can empathize as a result of he has a preexisting situation: He sustained mind trauma and kidney failure because of a botched intubation throughout a routine process.
“In probably the most uninsured state within the nation, Texas’s 23rd Congressional District is without doubt one of the most medically underserved components of the state. And I believe it’s so important that we shield and increase the ACA and be certain that we’ve a public possibility in order that, you already know, folks may have entry to high quality reasonably priced well being care, even when they’ve misplaced their job,” Jones advised Texas Public Radio throughout an October 25 candidate discussion board.
Democrats made a late-stage play for Texas, with the Biden marketing campaign, the nationwide celebration, and outdoors donors sinking tens of millions into the state within the last weeks of the marketing campaign. However Ortiz Jones’s loss means that these efforts aren’t paying dividends down the poll.