Funny how these things can intersect.
Remember him?
When the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week that the nation’s first case of New World screwworm had been detected in Zavala County, it was a code red development for the thousands of ranchers in southwest Texas.
In most of the quarantine zone set up around the first confirmed case in La Pryor, those ranchers don’t have a member of Congress to turn to.
Three screwworm cases have been reported in the 23rd Congressional District since Wednesday — two in Zavala County calves last week and an additional case in a La Salle County calf Monday. The outbreak of screwworm — a flesh-eating parasitic fly that poses serious risk to the state’s massive cattle industry — has triggered a coordinated federal and state response to contain and eradicate the fly, making communication between ranchers and pet owners on the ground and federal agencies critical.
But the 23rd District is vacant because Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, resigned in April amid an ethics investigation into his sexual relationship with a staffer who later died by suicide. Gov. Greg Abbott has the sole power to schedule a special election to fill the seat for the remainder of the term, but he has yet to set a date or signal when that may happen.
The stakes are high for the district, which stretches from El Paso County to San Antonio and includes over two dozen mostly rural counties in West and South Texas. The 23rd District did close to $450 million in cattle and calf sales, fourth most among Texas congressional districts and 35th in the country, according to 2022 data from USDA. The district had over 515,000 cattle and calves.
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Katy Padilla Stout, the Democratic nominee for the district, said the outbreak underscored the need for the yet uncalled special election.
Texas law gives the governor latitude to schedule emergency special elections, if he so chooses. For example, Abbott scheduled a June 30 special election in 2018 after Rep. Blake Farenthold resigned that April, citing disaster recovery from Hurricane Harvey as justification.
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether the screwworm outbreak would affect the special election timeline.
Padilla Stout, who has called for a special election since Gonzales resigned, said the screwworm threat has increased her frustration.
“We have an emergency that is specifically in the district,” Padilla Stout said. “If this isn’t cause for calling a special election, I don’t know what is.”
Padilla Stout said if she were in office, she would be able to press officials on how quickly they can ramp up the sterile insect program and push for further investment.
The Democrat said she has connected with ranchers — her family has a ranch in South Texas — as well as federal elected officials about the threat and the response. But given congressional standards and courtesy practices, elected officials in neighboring districts can sometimes have a hard time getting localized data or assistance for people they do not represent.
See here for more on CD23, and here for more on the screwworm. As the story notes, former Rep. Gonzales did a fair amount of work relating to the New World Screwworm, and while other members of Congress are trying to help with the current infestation there’s just less they can do. Either Greg Abbott calls an election for before November – which, almost two months after Gonzales’ resignation, he seems extremely unlikely to do – or the people of CD23 have to ride it out. At least now Abbott can say with a straight face that he doesn’t just screw over Democratic districts. The Chron and the Current have more.