U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales draws GOP primary challenge from Cotulla rancher Susan Storey Rubio

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One year after U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales survived his Republican primary by fewer than 400 votes, another GOP challenger has emerged to target him in next year’s midterms.

Susan Storey Rubio, a rancher from Cotulla, launched her campaign for Gonzales’ 23rd Congressional District Thursday evening, attacking the Republican incumbent for not taking a hard enough line on border security and accusing him of making “empty promises.”

She’ll put $350,000 of her own money into the race, according to a source close to the campaign.

“Tony Gonzales is a spineless moderate who didn’t do a thing to stand up to Joe Biden and the Democrats and hasn’t lifted a finger to help President Trump,” Storey Rubio said in a news release first shared with The Texas Tribune ahead of her campaign rollout.

In a 2-minute launch video, Storey Rubio tags Gonzales, who was first elected in 2020, as a bureaucrat and a career politician.

“It’s time to round up the career politicians and deport them out of Washington, D.C.,” she says in the ad, which features a bus labeled “ICE” — referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — parked in front of the nation’s Capitol.

Gonzales, a centrist from San Antonio and U.S. Navy veteran, ran his tightest race yet in 2024, when he won with just 50.6% of the vote in a primary runoff against YouTuber and pro-gun activist Brandon Herrera. It was Gonzales’ first primary cycle after the Texas GOP censured him for splitting with House Republicans on key votes, including his support for a bipartisan gun law in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting in his district.

The race drew national attention, with feuding between Gonzales and the right flank of the Republican Party spilling into public. Then-U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, and leaders of the hardline House Freedom Caucus endorsed Herrera. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson endorsed Gonzales, with Johnson traveling to Texas to fundraise for him.

Gonzales outspent Herrera more than 2-to-1 — but won their head-to-head runoff by only 354 votes.

Gonzales reported $1.9 million cash on hand at the end of the most recent campaign filing period, which ended in March.

Texas’ 23rd Congressional District stretches from San Antonio to the outskirts of El Paso, covering the largest stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border of any district in the nation.

Republican Zeke Enriquez has already filed to run against Gonzales in the March primary. Democrat Santos Limon, who lost to Gonzales with 38% of the vote last November, will vie again for the Democratic nomination. Another Democrat, Peter White, has also filed.

The primary election is scheduled for March 3.

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