Good.
Katy Padilla Stout
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is adding Texas’ 23rd Congressional District to its target list, the third red-leaning, Hispanic-majority U.S. House seat to make it onto national Democrats’ radar ahead of November.
In adding the seat to its “Districts in Play” list, the House Democratic campaign arm is signaling party leaders’ growing belief that they can flip the sprawling district, which runs from San Antonio into West Texas and has been held by Republicans since 2015. The designation also means the DCCC can spend against the Republican nominee in the district.
The 23rd District, which covers a large chunk of the Texas-Mexico border, was most recently represented by Tony Gonzales, a moderate Republican who resigned earlier this year over a sex scandal with a staffer.
Katy Padilla Stout, a San Antonio attorney and former teacher, is the Democratic nominee in the district.
Her Republican foe this fall, gun rights activist and YouTuber Brandon Herrera, had challenged Gonzales in the primary and forced him into a runoff. He secured the GOP nomination after the congressman dropped out of the race before the runoff election.
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With the addition of the district, the DCCC is now targeting three seats in South Texas, with a list that already included the 15th Congressional District, represented by Edinburg GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz, and the 35th Congressional District, an open seat anchored in Bexar County and redrawn to favor Republicans. All three have majority-Hispanic voting populations.
On the GOP side, the National Republican Congressional Committee is targeting five seats in Texas, all of which were redrawn by the Legislature to be friendlier to Republicans. They include the 9th Congressional District in Houston, the 32nd Congressional District in North Texas, the open 35th District and the Trump-leaning seats of two incumbent Democrats: Rep. Henry Cuellar’s Laredo-based district and Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s Rio Grande Valley seat.
The article touches on what a jackass Herrera is, but really, it cannot be overstated what an absolute tool he is. Of course, former incumbent Tony Gonzales is a huge creep – he sure fit right in with his caucus – so you can see why this district made for an appealing target. There was one bit of polling data from March that added some objective evidence for the DCCC’s involvement. I figure we’ll see some data on that score sooner or later – fellow DCCC-supported candidate Bobby Pulido got some positive poll news this week – but as noted before, if the statewide races are significantly more favorable to Dems than they were two and four years ago, that will trickle down to Congressional districts like this as well. However you look at it, it makes sense for the DCCC to invest here.
By the way, you know what still hasn’t happened yet? Greg Abbott still hasn’t scheduled that CD23 special election. I think we can say with confidence now that it will happen in November. And that this is further evidence of the GOP’s fears about Texas this year, because in any normal context they would have raced to fill that seat.