AUSTIN, Texas ( Associated Press) — Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales was handed a vote of no confidence Saturday, unusual for his party in the state because of its support for new gun safety laws. , after the massacre at the Uvalde elementary school. which were made in his domain.
The Texas Republican Party voted 57-5, with one abstention, recognizing how the two-term congressman’s willingness to break with conservatives on key issues during his short time in office has angered Republican activists and some of his colleagues.
An independent series that includes opposing the House Republicans’ immigration bill rocks the US-Mexico border, which includes a large part of the South Texas region. He also voted to protect same-sex marriage and ruled the House “no” against the package after Republican leader Kevin McCarthy became House speaker.
Gonzales defiantly did not attend a meeting of Republican leaders and activists in Austin before the vote.
“We’ll see what happens,” he told reporters in San Antonio on Thursday.
Gonzales spent the day at work, according to Sara Young, his spokeswoman.
“He spoke with veterans, visited with Border Patrol agents and met with constituents,” Young said in a statement. “The fact that Texas Republicans are following suit and really getting to work.”
The vote was followed by an hour-long closed-door executive session in which party members could discuss the resolution.
There were no public comments from members before or after the executive session, votes were taken almost minutes after the meeting returned, followed by cheers and applause from committee members.
In practice, the ban allows the state party to sit out if Gonzales runs again in 2024 and spend money on primary voters to remind them of the ban. Censorship requires a three-fifths majority, or 39 votes, of the Republican Executive Committee, according to committee Chairman Matt Rinaldi.
More than a dozen local Republican clubs in the Gonzales district have already passed bans.
Gonzales won the Republican primary and won re-election by a heavily Hispanic margin. He won the first time in 2020 to fill the seat vacated by Republican Will Hurd, who was also not afraid to vote against his party and, according to aides, would run the governor’s plan.
