Tony Gonzales
| Ernest Anthony “Tony” Gonzales | |
 | |
U.S. Representative for Texas'
23rd Congressional District | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Will Hurd |
|---|---|
| Born | October 10, 1980 |
| Spouse(s) | Angel Gonzales |
| Children | Christina, Jesus, Emmanuel, Daniel, Gabriel, and Izzy Gonzales |
| Residence | San Antonio, Texas |
| Alma mater | Georgetown University American Public University University of Southern Mississippi |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Military Service
| |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service/branch | United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1999–2019 |
| Rank | Master Petty Officer Cryptologist |
| Battles/wars | Operation Iraqi Freedom War in Afghanistan |
Ernest Anthony “Tony” Gonzales, II (born October 10, 1980), is the current U.S. Representative for Texas's 23rd congressional district, which has been the most politically competitive of the then thirty-six districts in the state. It stretches from western San Antonio to eastern El Paso and encompasses the lower portion of the Texas Hill Country. Gonzales succeeded his fellow Moderate Republican Will Hurd; he ran with the endorsements of Hurd and several establishment Republicans, though his campaign positions were somewhat more conservative than the record compiled since 2015 by Hurd.
Contents
Background
Gonzales was reared in San Antonio, Devine, and Camp Wood Hills, Texas. He is a retired United States Navy cryptologist who worked in Operation Iraqi Freedom and the longstanding war in Afghanistan. For a time, he was a Department of Defense Legislative Fellow in the office of U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. He has been an assistant professor at the University of Maryland system, for which he instructed counterterrorism, U.S. Government, and political science courses. He holds a graduate certificate in Legislative Studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., a master’s degree in International Relations from American Public University, an on-line institution based in Charles Town, West Virginia. He is studying for a Ph.D. at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in International Development with an emphasis on Security Studies and International Politics.[1]
His Tony Gonzales Fourndation is a non-profit organization focused on the encouragement of growth and development in poor neighborhoods in San Antonio. The foundation seeks to unite local businesses with schools, and families. In 2018, Gonzales received a National Security Fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a non-profit, non-partisan Washington, D.C., institute focused on foreign policy and national security. He has been the community representative for the San Antonio Head Start Policy Council, for which he oversees a budget of $32.5 million devoted to early childhood development.[1]
Gonzales and his wife, Angel, have six children: Christina, Jesus, Emmanuel, Daniel, Gabriel, and Izzy.[1] He is a Roman Catholic who has emphasized on the importance of his faith in God.[2]
United States House of Representatives
2020 election
In his first venture in politics, Gonzales led a multi-candidate field in the primary election held on March 3, 2020. He won by only seven votes in a July runoff with the second-placed candidate, Raul Reyes, Jr., a retired United States Army officer from the border city of Del Rio in Val Verde County. However, Gonzales polled surprisingly well in the general election against the liberal Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones, an acolyte of then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who had hoped to ride a "Blue wave" to victory and is a staunch advocate of Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. In 2018, Ortiz Jones lost to Hurd by 1,150 votes.[3] The congressional district went for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by a narrow three-point margin.[4]
Gonzales carried support from U.S. President Donald Trump, whom Hurd has often criticized on immigration issues, including the border wall with Mexico. Gonzales' third-place primary rival, conservative firebrand Alma Arredondo-Lynch, a dentist and rancher from Uvalde County who had lost the nomination to Hurd in 2018, campaigned on Gonzales' behalf.
In the final general election results, Gonzales polled 147,496 votes (50.7 percent) to Ortiz Jones' 135,415 (46.5 percent), and 6,152 ballots for the Libertarian Party candidate.[5]
Tenure
Gonzales abandoned Trump in early January 2021 over the certification of the electoral votes for Joe Biden, with his two first congressional votes being against the objections for the states of Arizona and Pennsylvania.[6][7]
He was one of thirty-five Republicans to vote for the Partisan Hack resolution calling for an Investigation on Capital Hill.[8][9]
In 2022, Gonzales won renomination for a second term in the House by a wide margin in the Republican primary against former opponent, Alma Arredondo-Lynch.
Censure by state GOP
On March 4, 2023, Gonzales was censured on a 55-7 vote with one abstention by the Texas State Republican Central Committee meeting in Austin because of Gonzales' strong support for numerous Democratic bills, particularly the "red flag" gun control act passed in the wake of the May 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, a city located within Gonzales' House district. The bill was also pushed to passage by Gonzales' fellow Moderate Republican, U.S. Senator John Cornyn of Texas. The central committee also chastised Gonzales' unwillingness to support a border security bill pushed by Gonzales' neighboring colleague, conservative Chip Roy.[10]
In November 2023, Representative Gonzales joined sixty-nine other Republicans to vote to establish a new $300 million building to house the FBI, despite reservations raised by conservatives about the fairness of the agency.[11]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Tony Gonzales for Congress. tonygonzalesforcongress.com. Retrieved on November 16, 2020.
- ↑ Liedi, Jonathan (November 18, 2020). New Catholic Elected Officials Hope to Lead with Faith. National Catholic Register. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
- ↑ Nicole Narea (November 4, 2020). Tony Gonzales wins Texas 23rd House race, defeating Gina Ortiz Jones. vox.com. Retrieved on November 16, 2020.
- ↑ Wasserman, David and Flinn, Ally (April 7, 2017). Introducing the 2017 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index. Cook Political Report. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
- ↑ Texas Secretary of State, Election Returns, November 3, 2020
- ↑ FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 10. clerk.house.gov. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
- ↑ FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 11. clerk.house.gov. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
- ↑ https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2021/roll154.xml
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/05/19/35-house-republicans-vote-for-bill-to-establish-january-6-commission/
- ↑ Texas congressman who broke with GOP is censured. msn.com. Retrieved on March 4, 2023.
- ↑ J. D. Rucker (November 9, 2023). Here Is a List of 70 RINOs Who Just Voted to Reward the Weaponized FBI With a Lavish New $300 Million Building. The Liberty Daily.
External links
- Official Website
- Profile at Ballotpedia
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