The House Republican who represents Uvalde, Texas, and broke with his party to vote for a gun safety bill after the school shooting there will face a runoff election in May against a popular gun YouTuber.
Rep. Tony Gonzales failed to surpass the 50% threshold Tuesday in the Republican primary to avoid a runoff in the state’s 23rd District, which covers a vast rural area from the west region of Texas to the San Antonio suburbs and includes much of the U.S.-Mexico border along the Rio Grande. Gonzales, who is seeking a third two-year term in Congress, got 45.1% in unofficial results, while challenger Brandon Herrera came in second among five candidates, with 24.7%.
Gonzales and Herrera will compete in a runoff May 28, with the winner advancing to face Democrat Santos Limon in November. Limon, a civil engineer, won 58.6% in the Democratic primary Tuesday.
Herrera is part of a large gun culture on YouTube featuring people sometimes known as “gunfluencers” or “guntubers,” who post videos of themselves firing weapons. Herrera has risen to popularity on the platform, where he has 3.2 million subscribers and has posted 485 videos since 2014. His videos about weapons have gotten 557 million views on such topics as grenade launchers, Nazi machine guns and the gun used to kill Abraham Lincoln. He also makes and sells Kalashnikov-style rifles through his website and goes by the nickname “The AK Guy,” a reference to the infamous Russian family of machine guns that includes the AK-47.
On his campaign website he describes himself as “an entrepreneur, Second Amendment activist, and social media personality.”
“Texas is done with RINO’s. The war starts now,” Herrera said late Tuesday on X, using a common conservative abbreviation for “Republican in name only.”
At issue in the race is a 2022 law passed after the Uvalde shooting, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed.
The bipartisan law provides grants to states for “red flag” laws, which allow judges to take firearms away from people who pose imminent danger to themselves or others. The law also enhanced background checks to include juvenile records and closed the “boyfriend loophole” by keeping guns away from non-spouse dating partners convicted of abuse.
Gonzales supported the law, saying in 2022 that it would protect innocent lives and not infringe on the Constitution. He was one of 14 House Republicans voting with Democrats to pass the bill 234-193.
Months later, the Texas Republican Party voted to censure him for that vote and others.
Herrera has attacked the 2022 law as “Joe Biden’s gun control bill.” He says that red flag laws are “unconstitutional” and that the law violates veterans’ Second Amendment rights. He said Wednesday that the leadership of local law enforcement should be held accountable for the shooting in Uvalde.
In addition to his stand-alone YouTube videos, Herrera has several multivideo series, including one in which he critiques people for improper or unsafe handling of guns and another in which he mocks fans of AR rifles. AR rifles are notorious for their lethal impact in mass shootings, and Herrera says AR users aren’t as tough as users of AK rifles.
Herrera’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for an interview Wednesday. He has also criticized Gonzales’ stances on immigration and vaccines.
Gonzales said Wednesday that he was focused on finding solutions to the district’s biggest challenges.
“Words mean nothing if they aren’t followed by actions,” he posted on X. He didn’t directly address Tuesday’s results or the runoff.
Gonzales’ campaign also didn’t immediately respond to a request for an interview.
Gonzales had sought to shore up his conservative credentials in the days leading up to Tuesday’s primary. He released an ad attacking Biden on immigration, saying “blood” was on Biden’s hands after a truck driver who was smuggling 11 immigrants killed a 7-year-old and her grandmother in a crash.
Herrera, capitalizing on his first name, has embraced the anti-Biden meme “Let’s go, Brandon!” in his campaign.
He has kept posting videos even while he has been running for Congress, including nine he has uploaded since Jan. 1.
YouTube didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Limon, the Democrat in the race, also didn’t immediately respond to an interview request.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
