Texas Tribune
U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales declares victory in GOP runoff
by By Matthew Choi, The Texas Tribune – 2024-05-29 00:02:05
SUMMARY: U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales narrowly won the Republican primary runoff for Texas's 23rd Congressional District against YouTuber Brandon Herrera, overcoming a field of right-wing challengers following his censure by the Texas Republican Party. Despite massive fundraising, Gonzales led by just 400 votes, staying within recount margins. Herrera leveraged his YouTube platform to spread his message and was strongly supported by the House Freedom Caucus and other far-right conservatives. The district, extending from San Antonio to El Paso, has historically backed moderates but leans more Republican post-redistricting. Gonzales will face Democrat Santos Limon in the upcoming general election.
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SAN ANTONIO — U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales declared victory in the Republican primary runoff to represent the 23rd Congressional District on Tuesday, narrowly beating back a spirited challenge from YouTuber Brandon Herrera who strived to turn the race into a referendum over his voting record on guns.
“The future of America remains as bright as ever. Thank you #TX23 for continuing to place your faith in me,” Gonzales said on social media.
Despite his massive fundraising operation and powerful allies, Gonzales' victory was exceedingly tight. With all precincts reporting, Gonzales led by about 400 votes. The difference is within the margin where Herrera could request a recount.
The result was the culmination of months of feuding between the centrist Gonzales and the right-wing of the Republican Party — which spilled out into the open in the months ahead of the election, despite pleas from leadership and the rank-and-file to keep the fighting behind closed doors.
The race was Gonzales' first since his censure by the Texas Republican Party in March last year for taking centrist stances that the more culturally conservative state party found objectionable. The censure opened Gonzales to four challengers from the right, including former Medina County Republican Party Chair Julie Clark, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Victor Avila and former Border Patrol Agent Frank Lopez.
Herrera is known for this online persona, dubbed “the AK Guy,” and his irreverent sense of humor in YouTube videos and podcast appearances. His off-color online reputation was seen by some in his party as a liability, but it ended up a significant platform, allowing him to widely spread his message and fundraise hundreds of thousands of dollars.
None of the candidates got the required 50% of the votes needed to stave off a runoff in the March 5 GOP primary, with Gonzales securing 45% of the vote. Herrera received just under 25%.
The district, which stretches from San Antonio to El Paso and is bigger than several states, represents more of the U.S.-Mexico border than any other district in the country. It is the largest in Texas and includes parts of several metropolitan areas. It also includes Uvalde, which Gonzales represented during the Robb Elementary School shooting.
Gonzales' censure followed his opposition to a hardline border bill by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, and his support for bipartisan gun safety legislation after the Robb Elementary shooting.
Herrera was a strong fundraiser, having raised over $827,000 ahead of the primary and over $1.3 million ahead of the run off through his official campaign committee. He attracted contributions from a who's-who of far-right conservatives in the state and beyond, including supporters of U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and former Texas state Sen. Don Huffines.
But it paled in comparison to Gonzales' fundraising operation, which was backed by several business interests active in West Texas and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Gonzales raised over $4.5 million ahead of the runoff, a third of which was raised in April before the runoff.
Gonzales spent Tuesday crisscrossing his district, starting in San Antonio and making stops in Eagle Pass and Uvalde County. He and Herrera opted against having traditional election night parties, with Gonzales staying on the road through Tuesday evening.
Speaking outside of a San Antonio polling location on Tuesday, Herrera said the amount of money Gonzales and House Republican leadership was pouring into the race showed his grassroots campaign was a real threat.
“There's a reason why Tony's been asking for a lot of third party money,” Herrera said. “As somebody that [Gonzales] didn't take seriously early on, we've made the uni-party spend about $8 million they weren't expecting to.”
Herrera had the support of the House Freedom Caucus and other rabble-rousing right wingers in the Republican Party. Gonzales had beefed for years with those members on policy that he said was too extreme, including on the border and government funding. He also irked his peers when he was one of a few Republicans to vote against U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, for House Speaker. Jordan was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus and the right-wing's top pick.
The conflict simmered under the surface through the past two years, with members generally maintaining cordial relationships in public. But all came spilling into the public in April when Gonzales called his right-wing colleagues “scumbags” and compared them to the Klu Klux Klan for refusing to vote for billions of dollars in foreign aid to Ukraine.
“It's my absolute honor to be in Congress, but I serve with some real scumbags,” Gonzales said in a CNN interview. “These people used to walk around with white hoods at night. Now they're walking around with white hoods in the daytime.”
The comments sparked a chain reaction of Freedom Caucus members to openly support Herrera.
“It is not surprising that one of the most liberal RINOs in Congress, who has egregiously fought against real border security, and votes like a Democrat, would also resort to the Democrat playbook in screaming ‘racism' against those exposing him,” House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good, of Virginia, said at the time. “Thankfully, the good people of the Texas 23rd District have the opportunity to vote for change and an America First patriot, in Brandon Herrera.”
Freedom Caucus members had been covertly involved in the primary beforehand. Clark and Avila both said they met with members of the group before the primary. They both said they had entered the race as much to take out Gonzales as to run themselves. After the primary election, they promptly endorsed Herrera.
Gaetz, who is not a member of the Freedom Caucus but often antagonizes Republican leadership, campaigned for Herrera in San Antonio as early as March.
House Republican leadership urged members not to primary against incumbents, and the leadership roster formally endorsed Gonzales, with House Speaker Mike Johnson fundraising for him in San Antonio in April. Several other high profile Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, endorsed Gonzales as well.
Freedom Caucus members were not shy in expressing their displeasure with leadership's stance.
“I cannot tolerate what's happening to the people that I think are standing up for this country,” Roy, who is the policy chair of the Freedom Caucus, said on KTSA at the time. “To have the speaker be in San Antonio campaigning for Tony … I'm just beside myself that that's where things are.”
Gonzales is strategically important for Republican leadership beyond his ability to win a historically centrist seat. His relationships with moderate Republicans were an asset for leadership during the House Republican push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Gonzales was a vocal supporter of the effort and helped recruit more moderate members to the cause. The Democratic-controlled Senate quickly tossed the articles of impeachment.
Gonzales also has the endorsement of several major interest groups in Texas, including the Texas Farm Bureau, the Texas Municipal Police Association, the National Border Patrol Council, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas and the Border Commerce and Security Council. Volunteers from the International Association of Fire Fighters, a fire fighters' union that endorsed Gonzales, showed up outside the Parman Branch Library in San Antonio on Tuesday to encourage voters to vote for Gonzales.
Gabriel Muñoz, a member of the union's legislative committee, said the union backed Gonzales for his advocacy for firefighter funding and for removal of PFAS, a toxic class of chemicals used for its water-resistant properties, from firefighting gear. But he said the union's endorsement was based on what candidates have done for firefighters and their entire platforms.
“When it comes to the union, we always stay centered on fire fighter issues, because our membership is not right or left,” Muñoz said.
The union has endorsed Democrats, including President Joe Biden in 2020.
Herrera is an unconventional candidate, having never served elected office and eschewing typical campaign parlance for an online presence littered with jokes about women, guns, the Holocaust, autism and other topics that have prompted concerns from some of his fellow Republicans.
Gonzales criticized him for his jokes, saying they were not becoming of a member of Congress. He took particular offense to a joke Herrera made about veterans saying: “I often think about putting a gun in my mouth, so I'm basically an honorary veteran.”
“Special place in hell for scum and villainy who mock veteran suicide or shoot up a church,” Gonzales, a Navy veteran, said in response.
But that humor was also a large part of his online appeal. Herrera has over 3.4 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, where he reviews guns, talks politics and trolls leftist activists. Herrera said he made the veteran suicide quip with veterans who used dark humor to cope with trauma. Herrera is not a veteran.
In a YouTube monologue last month, Herrera said when the time calls for it, he knows how to behave.
“I do have a higher standard of demeanor when it comes to actual political discourse on things like, you know, Twitter. It's all about knowing the time and place,” Herrera said. “It's like you'll swear in front of your drinking buddies, but not in front of your grandma. Unless your grandma is rad as shit.”
Several volunteers for Herrera's campaign stood outside of San Antonio voting locations Tuesday, making the case for his bid. One volunteer, Victoria, who would not give her last name and is active duty military, said she was there to talk to voters concerned about Herrera's past comments.
“He's a YouTuber. He's a comedian. He's said things that, because it's comedy, people might take it the wrong way and people just need to have a sense of humor about it,” she said.
Gonzales will now face Democrat Santos Limon in the November general election.
The district has historically voted for moderates of both parties, though it became more comfortably Republican after redistricting in 2021. The district voted for former President Donald Trump by 1.7 percentage points in 2020, but would have voted for Trump by 7.1 points with the new district lines.
Herrera said Tuesday that redistricting allows voters to support a more right-wing candidate in the primary without having to worry about losing to a Democrat in November.
“It's much more conservative so now we don't have to settle for a moderate. We can actually get the conservative we've always wanted,” Herrera said.
National Democratic groups such as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the House Majority PAC are not investing in Limon who raised just under $88,000 through February. He missed the deadline to file his April 30 report disclosing his most recent haul.
Republicans are still investing in the region for the general election. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Johnson, reserved $694,000 in English and Spanish ads for the El Paso market in November.
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The post U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales declares victory in GOP runoff appeared first on TexasTribune.org.
The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Texas Tribune
Texas to double state fund aimed at expanding power grid
by By Kayla Guo, The Texas Tribune – 2024-07-01 17:05:54
SUMMARY: The state of Texas plans to double the Texas Energy Fund from $5 billion to $10 billion to expand the power grid as electricity demand is expected to nearly double by 2030. This follows a forecast by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which estimated the state's main grid would need to supply nearly twice its current power. The fund, approved by voters in November 2023, offers low-interest loans for new gas-fueled power plants. The state's grid has faced scrutiny since a 2021 winter storm caused extensive outages. Companies must apply for loans by July 27.
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The state of Texas plans to double a state fund aimed at expanding the power grid as demand for electricity is expected to nearly double over the next six years.
The state will look to boost the Texas Energy Fund from $5 billion to $10 billion, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced on Monday. The fund was approved by voters in November 2023 to offer low-interest loans to incentivize development of new gas-fueled power plants.
The announcement comes soon after a new prediction by the state's main grid operator that said electricity needs will surge in the coming years. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas estimated that the state's main power grid would have to provide nearly double the amount of power it currently supplies by 2030.
The numbers in the new forecast, Abbott and Patrick said in a press release, “call for an immediate review of all policies concerning the grid.”
The state's grid came under intense public and legislative scrutiny after a winter storm in 2021 knocked out its operations, causing dayslong power outages across the state in freezing temperatures that left millions of Texans without lights or heat. Hundreds died.
The Texas Energy Fund set aside $5 billion to fund 3% interest loans to help construct new gas-fueled power plants that are not dependent on the weather and that could power 20,000 homes or more.
The fund was also designed to pay out bonuses to companies that connect new gas-fueled plants to the main grid by June 2029, and to offer grants for modernizing, weatherizing and managing vegetation growth around electricity infrastructure in Texas outside the main electricity market, which meets around 90% of the state's power needs.
The state received notices of intent to apply for $39 billion in loans — almost eight times more than what was initially set aside, Abbott and Patrick said. They added that the average plant will take three to four years to complete, and new transmission lines will take three to six years to complete.
Companies have until July 27 to apply for a loan.
Just in: Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming; U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania; and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!
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The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Texas Tribune
Commanding officer confirms Troy Nehls has two Bronze Stars
by By Isaac Yu, The Texas Tribune – 2024-07-01 13:02:57
SUMMARY: The Texas Tribune reports that the military record of Rep. Troy Nehls has come under scrutiny. A CBS investigation revealed discrepancies in Nehls' service decorations, including claims of a second Bronze Star and a Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB), which the Pentagon has not corroborated. Nehls' former commanding officer, Jason Burke, affirmed awarding him a second Bronze Star in 2008. Despite the Pentagon's records indicating only one Bronze Star and no CIB, Nehls insists on social media that he earned both awards. Nehls, facing criticism, has stopped wearing the CIB, which was revoked in 2023 due to service in a non-combat role.
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WASHINGTON — The commanding officer of a 2008 tour in Afghanistan that included then-U.S. Army Major Troy Nehls told The Texas Tribune that he recalls awarding the now-congressman his second Bronze Star award.
That award — which recognizes service members who show heroism in the field — has been called into question after a CBS investigation reported Nehls had been touting military decorations that did not match his service record provided by the Pentagon. In campaign ads and in his House biography, Nehls, R-Richmond, has posted pictures wearing an Army uniform and two Bronze Star medals. He has also worn the Combat Infantryman Badge lapel pin, awarded to soldiers for service in combat.
The investigation found that the Pentagon reported Nehls received only one Bronze star and that the Combat Infantryman Badge was awarded in error and rescinded in 2023. Nehls, who has been publicly criticized by members of his own party amid the claims of stolen valor, said on social media that he did have two Bronze Stars. But he has since stopped wearing the CIB.
But Jason Burke, the Navy captain who led the 130-person joint task force Nehls served on during his tour, recalled awarding the medal to Nehls. Nehls received the medal at a ceremony with several other officers in the fall of 2008, shortly before Nehls finished his tour and returned to Texas, Burke told the Tribune.
“You're getting that award if you've done a good job and met the criteria,” said the now-retired Burke, who is listed on the award certificate as Nehls' commanding officer. “He earned it, and received it.”
Nehls, who represents a swath of Houston suburbs, served as Burke's second-in-command under a joint effort called Task Force Currahee. Their unit, which included both Army and Navy officers, worked on provincial reconstruction, building roads, clinics and schools in eastern Afghanistan's Ghazni Province. Burke said the team's convoys regularly came under Taliban ambushes and guerrilla attacks.
The Bronze Star award must be recommended by a commander, and any service member in any branch of the military working an operation involving a conflict with an opposing force is eligible. The CIB, by contrast, is only given to those in combat roles.
It was relatively standard during the U.S.'s war on terrorism, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, for officers of certain ranks to receive a some kind of award upon completing a tour, often a Bronze Star. Nehls' first star was awarded for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004, where he trained 13 staff members of an Iraqi government office to perform financial assessments, according to the certificate.
A spokesperson for Nehls declined to comment on this story, pointing to a post on X Nehls made last month defending his record and posting photos of the certificates of his two Bronze Stars, and his copy of the underlying nomination forms. Burke's sign-off can be seen on the 2008 documentation, known as a Form 638, along with signatures from two higher-level officials.
CBS reported the Pentagon would conduct another review of Nehls' record. The most recent summary of his service and awards, provided to the Tribune by a Pentagon spokesperson on Friday, lists only one Bronze Star and no CIB.
The systems for keeping records for military awards can be difficult to navigate. A soldier often becomes responsible for making sure awards paperwork is turned over to a personnel officer.
That means documentation for awards sometimes slips through the cracks, according to retired Army sergeant Anthony Anderson, who has investigated numerous instances of stolen valor.
“I wouldn't say it's common, but it does happen,” Anderson said.
Anderson said he had previously spoken with Nehls' chief of staff, encouraging them to submit documentation of the second Bronze Star to the Pentagon to be added to Nehls record.
He said he would be surprised if an officer in Nehls' position hadn't received a Bronze Star.
Nehls' military record has become a thorn for him in recent months. He announced that he would stop wearing the Combat Infantryman Badge last week in response to reports that the badge had been revoked in 2023.
Nehls was found to be ineligible for that badge because he had served in Afghanistan in a civil role, not as a combatant infantryman. Nehls did serve as an infantryman during his time with the Wisconsin National Guard in the 1990s, completing a tour in Bosnia.
Just in: Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming; U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania; and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!
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The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Texas Tribune
Robert Robertson execution day set in Texas shaken baby case
by By Kayla Guo, The Texas Tribune – 2024-07-01 11:33:10
SUMMARY: A Texas court has scheduled Robert Roberson's execution for October 17. Roberson, sentenced to death in 2003 for his 2-year-old daughter's death, has consistently challenged the conviction, claiming it was based on questionable science. Despite halting his execution in 2016 due to doubts about shaken baby syndrome, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld his death sentence in 2023. Roberson's attorneys argue new evidence shows his daughter died of natural causes, not head trauma, and question the shaken baby syndrome diagnosis. The execution date triggers deadlines for last-minute legal and clemency filings.
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A Texas court on Monday set an execution date for Robert Roberson, who was sentenced to death in 2003 for killing his 2-year-old daughter but has consistently challenged the conviction on the claim that it was based on questionable science.
Roberson has maintained his innocence while being held on death row for more than 20 years. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals previously halted his execution in 2016. But in 2023, the state's highest criminal court decided that doubt over the cause of his daughter's death was not enough to overturn his death sentence.
His new execution date is set for Oct. 17.
Roberson's attorneys objected to the scheduling of an execution after Anderson County prosecutors requested on June 17 that a date be set. His attorneys said they have new evidence to bolster their case and that they planned to file a new request to overturn his conviction.
As a result, his attorneys argued, setting an execution date would be “premature and unjust.”
Roberson was convicted of killing his sickly 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, after he rushed her blue, limp body to the hospital. He said that Nikki fell from the bed while they were sleeping in their home in the East Texas town of Palestine and that he awoke to find her unresponsive. But doctors and nurses, who were unable to revive her, did not believe such a low fall could have caused the fatal injuries and suspected child abuse.
At trial, doctors testified that Nikki's death was consistent with shaken baby syndrome — in which an infant is severely injured from being shaken violently back and forth — and a jury convicted Roberson.
The Court of Criminal Appeals in 2016 stopped his execution and sent the case back to the trial court after the scientific consensus around shaken baby syndrome diagnoses came into question. Many doctors believe the condition is used as an explanation for an infant's death too often in criminal cases, without considering other possibilities and the baby's medical history.
The Court of Criminal Appeals' decision was largely a product of a 2013 state law, dubbed the “junk science law,” which allows Texas courts to overturn a conviction when the scientific evidence used to reach a verdict has since changed or been discredited. Lawmakers, in passing the law, highlighted cases of infant trauma that used faulty science to convict defendants as examples of the cases the legislation was meant to target.
Roberson's attorneys, in their opposition to setting an execution date, cited “overwhelming new evidence” that Nikki died of “natural and accidental causes” — not due to head trauma.
They wrote that Nikki had “severe, undiagnosed” pneumonia that caused her to stop breathing, collapse and turn blue before she was discovered. Then, instead of identifying her pneumonia, doctors prescribed her Phenergan and codeine, drugs that are no longer given to children her age, further suppressing her breathing, they argued.
“It is irrefutable that Nikki's medical records show that she was severely ill during the last week of her life,” Roberson's attorneys wrote, noting that in the week before her death, Roberson had taken Nikki to the emergency room because she had been coughing, wheezing and struggling with diarrhea for several days, and to her pediatrician's office, where her temperature came in at 104.5 degrees.
“There was a tragic, untimely death of a sick child whose impaired, impoverished father did not know how to explain what has confounded the medical community for decades,” Roberson's attorneys wrote.
They have also argued that new scientific evidence suggests that it is impossible to shake a toddler to death without causing serious neck injuries, which Nikki did not have.
And they cited developments in a similar case in Dallas County, in which a man was convicted of injuring a child. His conviction was based in part on now partially recanted testimony from a child abuse expert who provided similar testimony on shaken baby syndrome in Roberson's case. Prosecutors in Dallas County have said the defendant should get a new trial.
In 2023, when the Court of Criminal Appeals denied Roberson a new trial, prosecutors argued that the evidence supporting Roberson's conviction was still “clear and convincing” and that the science around shaken baby syndrome had not changed as much as his defense attorneys claimed. Witnesses also testified at trial that Roberson had a bad temper and would shake and spank Nikki when she would not stop crying.
The scheduling of Roberson's execution triggers a series of deadlines for any last filings in state and federal court to seek relief and begin a request for clemency.
Just in: Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming; U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania; and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!
The post Robert Robertson execution day set in Texas shaken baby case appeared first on TexasTribune.org.
The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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