Recount ends in GOP runoff for House race
AUSTIN — The recount in the Republican primary runoff to replace U.S. Rep. Will Hurd is over, with Trump-backed candidate Tony Gonzales maintaining a slim victory over opponent Raul Reyes.
Reyes paid for the recount after a razor-thin loss to Gonzales in July’s Republican runoff for the 23rd Congressional District, a swing district that has long been targeted by Democrats.
The final stretch of the recount Friday, which held up Gonzales’ win by a few dozen votes, ends a nail-biting series of events. A crowded GOP field competed in March, with no candidate receiving a majority. That forced the top two candidates into a runoff election that was delayed by the governor for six weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The runoff, initially too close to call, ended narrowly in Gonzales’ favor after an additional delay of three weeks as the votes were tallied.
“Tony Gonzales has won the primary runoff at every stage: on election night, when the canvass was complete and throughout the recount,” Gonzales campaign spokesman Matt Mackowiak said.
Reyes called it off Friday evening after a review of ballots in Bexar, Medina, Uvalde, Kinney, Val Verde, El Paso and Crockett counties.
“Without a sizable shift in the vote margin after a recount in the most populous parts of the district, I have decided to end the recount,” he said in a release.
The conclusion brought a sigh of relief from the Gonzales campaign, which has grown increasingly frustrated with delayed results. The 23rd District is a lot of ground to cover for any candidate: Stretching from San Antonio to El Paso, it includes 29 counties and 800 miles of the border with Mexico.
Plus, tight elections are becoming the norm in the district, where Hurd beat Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones by about 900 votes in 2018. In May 2019, she committed to running again in 2020, and she won the Democratic primary in March.
Hurd announced in August 2019 that he would not seek reelection. At that point, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rated the race “lean Democratic,” which has not changed.
The postponed election and recount efforts created “division and delay (that) is only helping Nancy Pelosi and Gina Jones,” Mackowiak said.
Gonzales, a former Navy cryptologist, received President Donald Trump’s endorsement early last month and has campaigned on a conservative platform touting his support of the Second Amendment, strict border regulations and support for small businesses. Reyes, who had been backed by U.S. Sen Ted Cruz, challenged him from the right.
As ballots were recounted this week, Jones released her second television ad, a 30-second hit called “Issues” in which she touts her support for national security, vocational training and broadband expansion. Her latest financial filing indicates that she has about $3 million on hand — considerably more than Gonzales, who has roughly $400,000 in his campaign coffers.
In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Trump in the 23rd District by 4 percentage points.
Jones campaign spokeswoman Sharon Yang said Friday that the Democrat is “well-equipped to defeat either of them in a district President Trump lost and will lose again.”
Reyes initiated the recount July 31 after a 45-ballot loss in the runoff. On Friday, the Gonzales campaign said it won by 42 votes; Reyes’ team had said the difference was 39 votes.