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Rey Gonzalez
Rey Gonzalez Jr. (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Texas' 34th Congressional District. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Gonzalez completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Gonzalez (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Texas' 34th Congressional District. He lost in the general election on November 6, 2018. Gonzalez was a 2016 Republican candidate who sought election to the U.S. House to represent the 34th Congressional District of Texas.[1]
Gonzalez was a district-level delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Texas. Gonzalez was one of 104 delegates from Texas bound by state party rules to support Ted Cruz at the convention.[2] Cruz suspended his campaign on May 3, 2016. At the time, he had approximately 546 bound delegates. For more on what happened to his delegates, see this page.
Biography
Rey Gonzalez was born in Harlingen, Texas. He served in the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary and reached the rank of Captain. Gonzalez earned a bachelor's degree from Baylor University in 2002, an M.D. from Ross University School of Medicine in 2008, and a J.D. from the University of Dayton in 2010. Gonzalez’s career experience includes working as an attorney and as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Brownsville.[3][4]
Elections
2020
See also: Texas' 34th Congressional District election, 2020
Texas' 34th Congressional District election, 2020 (March 3 Democratic primary)
Texas' 34th Congressional District election, 2020 (March 3 Republican primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Texas District 34
Incumbent Filemon Vela defeated Rey Gonzalez Jr., Anthony Cristo, and Chris Royal in the general election for U.S. House Texas District 34 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Filemon Vela (D) | 55.4 | 111,439 |
 | Rey Gonzalez Jr. (R)  | 41.8 | 84,119 | |
 | Anthony Cristo (L) | 1.6 | 3,222 | |
 | Chris Royal (Independent) | 1.1 | 2,247 | |
| Total votes: 201,027 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 34
Incumbent Filemon Vela defeated Diego Zavala and Osbert Rodriguez Haro III in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 34 on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Filemon Vela | 75.1 | 39,484 |
 | Diego Zavala | 18.5 | 9,707 | |
| Osbert Rodriguez Haro III | 6.5 | 3,413 | ||
| Total votes: 52,604 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 34
Rey Gonzalez Jr. defeated Rod Lingsch in the Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 34 on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Rey Gonzalez Jr. | 56.3 | 10,665 |
 | Rod Lingsch | 43.7 | 8,271 | |
| Total votes: 18,936 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for U.S. House Texas District 34
Anthony Cristo advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. House Texas District 34 on March 21, 2020.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Anthony Cristo (L) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2018
General election
General election for U.S. House Texas District 34
Incumbent Filemon Vela defeated Rey Gonzalez Jr. in the general election for U.S. House Texas District 34 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Filemon Vela (D) | 60.0 | 85,825 |
| Rey Gonzalez Jr. (R) | 40.0 | 57,243 | |
| Total votes: 143,068 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 34
Incumbent Filemon Vela advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 34 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Filemon Vela | 100.0 | 25,344 |
| Total votes: 25,344 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 34
Rey Gonzalez Jr. advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 34 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Rey Gonzalez Jr. | 100.0 | 10,227 |
| Total votes: 10,227 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2016
Heading into the election, Ballotpedia rated this race as safely Democratic. Incumbent Filemon Vela (D) defeated Rey Gonzalez Jr. (R) in the general election on November 8, 2016. Vela faced no opposition in the Democratic primary on March 1, 2016, while Gonzalez defeated William "Willie" Vaden to win the Republican nomination.[5][6]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic |  Filemon Vela Incumbent |
62.7% | 104,638 | |
| Republican | Rey Gonzalez Jr. | 37.3% | 62,323 | |
| Total Votes | 166,961 | |||
| Source: Texas Secretary of State | ||||
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Rey Gonzalez Jr. |
50.6% | 12,532 | ||
| William Vaden | 49.4% | 12,253 | ||
| Total Votes | 24,785 | |||
| Source: Texas Secretary of State |
||||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Rey Gonzalez Jr. completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Gonzalez's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Gonzalez was born in Harlingen, Texas. Gonzalez holds the rank of major in the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary where he serves in dual appointments as a legal officer and health services officer. He earned a bachelor's degree from Baylor University, an M.D. from Ross University School of Medicine, and a J.D. from the University of Dayton. Gonzalez's career experience includes working as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Brownsville and in private law practice at the Law Office of Rey Gonzalez, Jr., MD, JD. Gonzalez is a D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship Fellow and also a Fellow of the American College of Legal Medicine.
Gonzalez is a devout Christian and member of the Assemblies of God denomination. He has served as a Sunday school teacher to youth for two decades. Gonzalez is married to Noela Gonzalez of Alice, TX. They have one daughter, Nillian Gonzalez.
- conservative
- conservative
- conservative
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2016
The following issues were listed on Gonzalez's campaign website. For a full list of campaign themes, click here.
| “ |
|
” |
| —Rey Gonzalez Jr.'s campaign website, https://reygonzalez.org/ | ||
2016 Republican National Convention
Delegate rules
At-large delegates from Texas to the national convention were selected by a state nominations committee and approved by the Texas State GOP Convention in May 2016. District-level delegates were elected by congressional districts at the state convention and then approved by the convention as a whole. At the national convention, all delegates were bound on the first ballot unless their candidate withdrew from the race or released his or her delegates. A delegate remained bound on the second ballot if his or her candidate received at least 20 percent of the total vote on the first ballot. On the third and subsequent ballots, all delegates were to become unbound.
Texas primary results
- See also: Presidential election in Texas, 2016
| Texas Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
| Jeb Bush | 1.2% | 35,420 | 0 | |
| Ben Carson | 4.2% | 117,969 | 0 | |
| Chris Christie | 0.1% | 3,448 | 0 | |
| Ted Cruz |
43.8% | 1,241,118 | 104 | |
| Carly Fiorina | 0.1% | 3,247 | 0 | |
| Lindsey Graham | 0.1% | 1,706 | 0 | |
| Elizabeth Gray | 0.2% | 5,449 | 0 | |
| Mike Huckabee | 0.2% | 6,226 | 0 | |
| John Kasich | 4.2% | 120,473 | 0 | |
| Rand Paul | 0.3% | 8,000 | 0 | |
| Marco Rubio | 17.7% | 503,055 | 3 | |
| Rick Santorum | 0.1% | 2,006 | 0 | |
| Donald Trump | 26.8% | 758,762 | 48 | |
| Other | 1% | 29,609 | 0 | |
| Totals | 2,836,488 | 155 | ||
| Source: Texas Secretary of State and CNN | ||||
Delegate allocation
Texas had 155 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, 108 were district-level delegates (three for each of the state's 36 congressional districts). District-level delegates were allocated on a proportional basis; a candidate had to win at least 20 percent of the primary vote in a district in order to be eligible to receive any of that district's delegates. If only one candidate met the 20 percent threshold in a district, he or she won all of the district's delegates. If two candidates met this threshold, the first place finisher received two of the district's delegates; the second place finisher received the remaining delegate. If no candidate won 20 percent of the vote, the top three finishers in a district each received one of the district's delegates. If a candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote in a district, he or she received all of the district's delegates.[8][9]
Of the remaining 47 delegates, 44 served at large. At-large delegates were allocated on a proportional basis; a candidate had to win at least 20 percent of the statewide primary vote in order to be eligible to receive any of the state's at-large delegates. If only one candidate broke the 20 percent threshold, the second place finisher still received a portion of the state's at-large delegates. If a candidate won more than 50 percent of the statewide vote, he or she received all of the state's at-large delegates. In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as bound delegates to the Republican National Convention.[8][9]
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Texas Secretary of State, "2016 March Primary Election Candidate Filings by County," accessed December 15, 2015
- ↑ Texas GOP, "National Convention," May 19, 2016
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 10, 2020
- ↑ Elect Dr. Rey Gonzalez, "Reasons to Vote," accessed February 3, 2018
- ↑ Texas Secretary of State, "2016 March Primary Election Candidate Filings by County," accessed December 15, 2015
- ↑ The New York Times, "Texas Primary Results," March 1, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016
