Tony Gonzales, a Republican and former Navy cryptologist, early Wednesday defeated Gina Ortiz Jones, a Democrat and Iraq Conflict veteran, in a car
Tony Gonzales, a Republican and former Navy cryptologist, early Wednesday defeated Gina Ortiz Jones, a Democrat and Iraq Conflict veteran, in a carefully watched congressional district on the southwestern border of Texas, beating again Democrats’ efforts to flip the seat as they pressed to construct their Home majority.
The success of Mr. Gonzales, who was endorsed by Consultant Will Hurd, the Republican incumbent who’s retiring, was a setback for Democrats’ efforts to show Texas blue by flipping quite a lot of seats within the conservative stronghold.
The Democrat’s loss, in line with The Related Press, was the second consecutive defeat for Ms. Jones, who would have been the primary homosexual lady of shade to signify Texas in Congress, and who narrowly fell brief in her bid for the seat in 2018, receiving roughly 1,100 votes fewer votes than Mr. Hurd.
The sprawling Texas district, which cuts via components of San Antonio and rural areas alongside the border, has lengthy been a political battleground, having swerved 5 occasions between the 2 events because the early 1990s. Ms. Jones’s proximity to victory in 2018 — so shut that she attended new member orientation earlier than conceding — made the race a high goal for Democrats, significantly after Mr. Hurd, the lone Black Republican within the Home, introduced his intent to step down.
Each events had pumped hundreds of thousands of {dollars} into the district, together with within the last weeks, as Republicans emphasised that the race was not but out of attain and labored to counter the massive battle chest Ms. Jones constructed after handily profitable her major race.
“Actually Sensible Folks maintain saying that TX23 is a foregone conclusion,” Parker Polling, the manager director of the Home Republican marketing campaign arm stated on Twitter in late October. “However Dem outdoors teams have dropped nearly $4.5M on TV alone right here, on high of DC resident Gina Jones’ $2M. So nobody needs to be shocked by knowledge displaying this to be a particularly aggressive race.”
Mr. Gonzales had prevailed in a bitter major, runoff and subsequent recount that pitted his endorsement from President Trump towards that of Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, who had backed Raul Reyes, a retired Air Drive veteran. Brandishing his conservative credentials, Mr. Gonzales sought to border Ms. Jones as a Washington insider, allied with Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and essentially the most liberal Democrats in Congress.
Through the marketing campaign, Mr. Gonzales emphasised his calls to extend funding in border and nationwide safety, in addition to his opposition to the landmark determination in Roe v. Wade that established abortion rights.