Texas' 23rd Congressional District election, 2026 (May 26 Republican primary runoff)

	← 2024
Texas' 23rd Congressional District
	Democratic primary; Republican primary; Republican primary runoff; General election
Election details
	Filing deadline: December 8, 2025
	Primary: March 3, 2026; Primary runoff: May 26, 2026; General: November 3, 2026
How to vote
	Poll times: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Voting in Texas
Race ratings
	Cook Political Report: Solid Republican; DDHQ and The Hill: Pending; Inside Elections: Solid Republican; Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Republican
Ballotpedia analysis
	U.S. Senate battlegrounds; U.S. House battlegrounds; Federal and state primary competitiveness; Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2026
See also
	Texas' 23rd Congressional District; U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th • 10th • 11th • 12th • 13th • 14th • 15th • 16th • 17th • 18th • 19th • 20th • 21st • 22nd • 23rd • 24th • 25th • 26th • 27th • 28th • 29th • 30th • 31st • 32nd • 33rd • 34th • 35th • 36th • 37th • 38th; Texas elections, 2026; U.S. Congress elections, 2026; U.S. Senate elections, 2026; U.S. House elections, 2026; Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House raceArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House raceFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House raceOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House raceTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House raceVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House raceSubmit

Texas 2026 elections

U.S. Senate • U.S. House • Governor • Lt. Gov • Attorney General • State executive offices • State Senate • State House • Special state legislative • Supreme court • Appellate courts • School boards • Municipal • All local elections by county • How to run for office

Texas redrew its congressional district boundaries in August 2025. Voters will elect representatives under the new map in 2026. Click here to read more about mid-decade redistricting ahead of the 2026 elections.

Incumbent Tony Gonzales (R) and Brandon Herrera (R) were the top two finishers among four candidates running in the Republican primary for Texas' 23rd Congressional District on March 3, 2026. Because no candidate won more than 50% of the vote, Gonzales and Herrera advanced to a runoff on May 26, 2026. The primary runoff was canceled and Herrera advanced to the general after Gonzales announced his withdrawal from the race.^[1]Gonzales and Herrera led in fundraising and local media attention.^[2]

This was a rematch of the 2024 primary. Gonzales defeated Herrera 50.6%–49.4% in the runoff after neither candidate won a majority in that year's primary. The Texas Tribune's Owen Dahlkamp described the 2026 primary as "yet another proxy war between the more centrist Gonzales and the right-wing, fire-breather Herrera."^[3]

Gonzales was first elected to the House in 2020. The Texas Tribune's Renzo Downey described Gonzales as "a centrist from San Antonio and U.S. Navy veteran."^[4] Gonzales highlighted the following accomplishments and says he has delivered for the district during his three terms in office: securing funding to hire more than 100 police officers in the district, opening a South Texas facility for treating the screwworm livestock parasite, and appropriating more than $4.7 billion in funding for healthcare for veterans.^[5]^[6]^[7] President Donald Trump (R) endorsed Gonzales in 2026 after not endorsing him in either 2024 or 2022.^[8]

Herrera describes himself as "an entrepreneur, Second Amendment activist, and social media personality" who owns a firearms manufacturing company (The AK Guy) and operates a firearms-related YouTube channel.^[9]^[10] In his 2026 campaign kickoff, Herrera said, "It started to eat at me. Those things that I didn't like about D.C., about my congressman, they didn't change...as much as it's more comfortable to just look the other way, I can't bow out of a fight if I know I can make a difference. It's just not how I'm wired."^[11]

Also running in the primary were Keith Barton (R) and Francisco Canseco (R).

As of March 2026, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales, and Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball each rated the general election Safe/Solid Republican. In the 2024 election, Gonzales defeated Santos Limon (D) 62.3%–32.7%. An Inside Elections analysis of the August 2025 redistricting in Texas found that "Rep. Tony Gonzales’s 23rd District remains Solid Republican."^[12]

Keith Barton (R) and Francisco Canseco (R) completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. To read those survey responses, click here.

This page focuses on Texas' 23rd Congressional District Republican primary runoff. For more in-depth information on the district's Republican primary, Democratic primary, and the general election, see the following pages:

Candidates and election results

Republican primary runoff election

The Republican primary runoff election was canceled. Brandon Herrera advanced from the Republican primary runoff for U.S. House Texas District 23.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Tony Gonzales (R)

Voting information

See also: Voting in Texas

Candidate profiles

This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.

Brandon Herrera

Party: Republican Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

Biography: Herrera was, as of the 2026 election, a social media personality and owner of a firearms manufacturing business. He attended Campbell University.

Key Messages

The following key messages were curated by Ballotpedia staff. For more on how we identify key messages, click here.

Herrera said Gonzales had "kept making bad votes that just made no sense to me. Like voting for Biden's gun control, opposing border security, selling out American interests on behalf of other countries, and a bunch of other things that shocked me to learn that a Texas Republican would vote for."

Herrera said he was challenging Gonzales again because "Texas District 23 deserves a real conservative, not a cheap fake who plays one on TV or sometimes weirdly just forgets to try to. Somebody who actually understands and respects the Constitution, not just, like, as a cheap line, but actually respects it. Someone who will vote not just to protect but to enhance your gun rights, not vote to throw them away when it gets inconvenient...Texas deserves better than Tony."

Herrera said he was "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."

Show sources

Sources: YouTube, "Brandon Herrera on YouTube - I'm Running for Congress," August 9, 2025; Brandon Herrera campaign website, "Home page," accessed October 9, 2025; Brandon Herrera campaign website, "Home page," accessed October 9, 2025

Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses

Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

No candidate in this race has completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Ballotpedia is seeking 100 percent participation so voters can learn more about all the candidates on their ballots.

You can ask candidates in this race to fill out the survey by clicking their names below:

Brandon Herrera

Campaign ads

Tony Gonzales

Ballotpedia did not come across any campaign ads for Tony Gonzales while conducting research on this election. If you are aware of any ads that should be included, please email us.

Brandon Herrera

"I'm Running for Congress" – Herrera campaign ad, released August 9, 2025

View more ads here:

YouTube

Endorsements

See also: Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

Click the links below to see official endorsement lists published on candidate campaign websites for any candidates that make that information available. If you are aware of a website that should be included, please email us.

Tony Gonzales

Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls

We provide results for polls that are included in polling aggregation from RealClearPolitics, when available. We will regularly check for polling aggregation for this race and add polls here once available. To notify us of polls available for this race, please email us.

Race ratings

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.^[13]
Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.^[14]^[15]^[16]

Race ratings: Texas' 23rd Congressional District election, 2026
Race tracker	Race ratings
	3/3/2026	2/24/2026	2/17/2026	2/10/2026
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter	Solid Republican	Solid Republican	Solid Republican	Solid Republican
Decision Desk HQ and The Hill	Pending	Pending	Pending	Pending
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales	Solid Republican	Solid Republican	Solid Republican	Solid Republican
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball	Safe Republican	Safe Republican	Safe Republican	Safe Republican
Note: Ballotpedia reviews external race ratings every week throughout the election season and posts weekly updates even if the media outlets have not revised their ratings during that week.

Campaign finance

Candidate spending

Name

Party

Receipts*

Disbursements**

Cash on hand

Date

Brandon Herrera

Republican Party

$868,569

$866,743

$9,867

As of February 11, 2026

Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2026. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

Satellite spending

See also: Satellite spending

Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.^[17]^[18]^[19]

If available, this section includes links to online resources tracking satellite spending in this election. To notify us of a resource to add, email us.

By candidate	By election
Tony Gonzales Keith Barton Francisco Canseco Brandon Herrera	OpenSecrets Federal Election Commission

District analysis

Click the tabs below to view information about voter composition, past elections, and demographics in both the district and the state.

District map - A map of the district before and after redistricting ahead of the 2026 election.
Competitiveness - Information about the competitiveness of 2026 U.S. House elections in the state.
Presidential elections - Information about presidential elections in the district and the state.
State party control - The partisan makeup of the state's congressional delegation and state government.

District map

Competitiveness
Presidential elections

State party control

Below is the district map used in the 2024 election next to the map in place for the 2026 election. Click on a map below to enlarge it.

2024

2026

See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2026

This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in Texas.

Post-filing deadline analysis

The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in Texas in 2026. Information below was calculated on Dec. 8, 2025, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time.

Two hundred fifty-two candidates — 98 Democrats and 154 Republicans — ran for Texas’ 38 U.S. House districts. That’s 6.6 candidates per district. There were 4.2 candidates per district in 2024, 5.8 in 2022, 6.4 in 2020, 5.9 in 2018, 3.5 in 2016, and 2.8 in 2014.

These were the first elections to take place since the Texas Legislature passed a new congressional map. The Texas House of Representatives passed it on Aug. 20, 2025, and the Texas Senate passed it on Aug. 23, 2025. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed the new congressional map into law on Aug. 29, 2025.

This was the highest total number of candidates who ran for the U.S. House since 2014.

Ten districts were open in 2026. There were three districts open in 2024, six in 2022, six in 2020, eight in 2018, two in 2016, and one in 2014.

Reps. Morgan Luttrell (R-8th), Michael McCaul (R-10th), Jodey Arrington (R-19th), Troy Nehls (R-22nd), Marc Veasey (D-33rd), and Lloyd Doggett (D-37th) retired from public office. Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-30th) and Wesley Hunt (R-38th) ran for the U.S. Senate. Rep. Chip Roy (R-21st) ran for attorney general of Texas.

Two incumbents — Reps. Christian Menefee (D) and Al Green (D) — ran against each other in the redrawn 18th district. Menefee was the incumbent in the 18th district, and Green was the incumbent in the 9th district.

Fifty-nine primaries — 32 Democratic and 28 Republican — were contested in 2026. In total, there were 39 contested primaries in 2024, 44 in 2022, 50 in 2020, 46 in 2018, 33 in 2016, and 19 in 2014.

Fifteen candidates ran for the open 9th district, 21st district, and 35th district, tying for the most candidates running for a district in 2026.

Nineteen incumbents — eight Democrats and 11 Republicans — faced primary challengers in 2026. There were 19 incumbents in a contested primary in 2024, 19 in 2022, 18 in 2020, 15 in 2018, 19 in 2016, and 12 in 2014.

Candidates filed to run in the Republican and Democratic primaries in all 38 districts, meaning no districts were guaranteed to either party.

Partisan Voter Index

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

Heading into the 2026 elections, based on results from the 2024 and 2020 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district is R+7. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 7 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Texas' 23rd the 169th most Republican district nationally.^[20]

2020 presidential election results

The table below shows what the vote in the 2024 presidential election was in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by The Downballot.

2024 presidential results in Texas' 23rd Congressional District
Kamala Harris	Donald Trump
44.8%	53.0%

Presidential voting history

See also: Presidential election in Texas, 2024

Texas presidential election results (1900-2024)

16 Democratic wins
15 Republican wins

Year	1900	1904	1908	1912	1916	1920	1924	1928	1932	1936	1940	1944	1948	1952	1956	1960	1964	1968	1972	1976	1980	1984	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012	2016	2020	2024
Winning Party	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	D	D	D	R	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R

See also: Party control of Texas state government

Congressional delegation

The table below displays the partisan composition of Texas' congressional delegation as of February 2026.

Congressional Partisan Breakdown from Texas
Party	U.S. Senate	U.S. House	Total
Democratic	0	13	13
Republican	2	25	27
Independent	0	0	0
Vacancies	0	0	0
Total	2	38	40

State executive

The table below displays the officeholders in Texas' top four state executive offices as of October 2025.

State executive officials in Texas, October 2025
Office	Officeholder
Governor	Greg Abbott
Lieutenant Governor	Dan Patrick
Secretary of State	Jane Nelson
Attorney General	Ken Paxton

State legislature

Texas State Senate

Party		As of October 2025
	Democratic Party	11
	Republican Party	18
	Other	0
	Vacancies	2
Total		31

Texas House of Representatives

Party		As of October 2025
	Democratic Party	62
	Republican Party	88
	Other	0
	Vacancies	0
Total		150

Trifecta control

Texas Party Control: 1992-2025
Three years of Democratic trifectas • Twenty-three years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
Governor	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
Senate	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
House	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R

District history

Texas' 23rd Congressional District election history

2024

Texas' 23rd Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 Democratic primary)

Texas' 23rd Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 Republican primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Texas District 23

Incumbent Tony Gonzales defeated Santos Limon in the general election for U.S. House Texas District 23 on November 5, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Tony Gonzales (R)	62.3	180,720
	Santos Limon (D)	37.7	109,373

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 290,093
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