Democrat Katy Padilla Stout flips Texas' 23rd Congressional District seat

Democrat Katy Padilla Stout is projected to win Texas' 23rd Congressional District, flipping a seat that Republicans had held after nominating Brandon Herrera, a controversial pro-gun YouTube personality, as their candidate.

Her victory arrived as part of a broader wave of Democratic wins across Texas, with the party also capturing the Senate race, the governor's mansion and several major House seats.

Herrera eventually received the backing of Republican leadership, but his campaign was repeatedly shadowed by material from his YouTube channel, which counts 4 million subscribers. Jokes he had made about Nazis and veteran suicides circulated widely, and other crude remarks about women resurfaced during the race.

The seat had been empty since April, when GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales resigned while facing an expulsion vote. Gonzales had admitted to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.

Gonzales was viewed as a moderate, though he remained a reliable Republican vote in Congress. He carried the district by 23 points in 2024, and the seat stayed safely Republican after last year's redistricting. President Trump won the current district by 14 points.

Texas' 23rd District runs from San Antonio to El Paso, takes in Uvalde and follows the southern border for more than 800 miles. It was once considered a swing seat, changing hands between Democrats and Republicans four times from 2006 to 2020, the year Gonzales was first elected.

The district has since been redrawn to be more conservative. Gonzales beat Herrera by only 400 votes in the 2024 primary, and in the March primary this year Herrera finished ahead of Gonzales even though the incumbent had Mr. Trump's endorsement.

Before Gonzales left the race, Democrats had not seriously viewed the district as winnable, but the Trump administration's hardline immigration policy became a central issue there. The Department of Homeland Security started building border wall segments in Big Bend National Park, even though the area accounts for only 1.3% of all southwest border arrests. The sprawling park, roughly the size of Rhode Island, is beloved by Texans.

Both Herrera and Padilla Stout opposed the wall construction in the park. A bill from Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar aimed at stopping the project failed to advance, but a judge halted the construction last month.