After voting for initiatives violating the Republican Party of Texas’ principles, Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales of San Antonio was censured by the Medina County Republican Party.
The Republican Party of Texas allows county parties to censure lawmakers who have taken three or more actions that fail to promote conservative principles.
In a resolution released this week, the Medina County Republican Party voted to hold Gonzales accountable for siding with Democrat legislators over his fellow Republicans in several instances.
MCRP highlighted Gonzales’ decision to vote in favor of the so-called “Respect for Marriage Act,” which called for repealing the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that recognized marriage as exclusively between one man and woman. Gonzales was the only Texas Republican to join Democrats in support of the measure on two separate votes.
The MCRP accused Gonzales of violating RPT’s sixth core principle, which calls for preserving “self-sufficient families, founded on the traditional marriage of a natural man and a natural woman.”
Gonzales was also condemned for voting against the rules package presented by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and “endangering the hard-won Republican majority control of Congress.”
He also came under fire for failing to support the Border Safety and Security Act of 2023, which called for the secretary of Homeland Security to prevent illegal aliens from entering the country. The MCRP accused Gonzales of falsely claiming that the legislation would prohibit legal asylum seekers from coming to the U.S. and referring to the measure as “anti-immigrant.”
The county party highlighted the fact that Gonzales’ district encompasses 843 miles of the Texas-Mexico border and condemned him for not supporting the RPT’s legislative priority to “secure the border and protect Texans.”
Earlier this year, Gonzales expressed frustration on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he was not asked to accompany President Joe Biden on his first presidential visit to the southern border.
“I’m not this crazy extremist Republican,” said Gonzales. “I’m jumping up and down, pushing against my party when I think it’s right.”
The Medina County Republican Party called Gonzales a “poor representative for his Republican constituents” and listed more than 10 additional reasons for his censure, including failing to support additional border wall construction, voting to require women to register for the military draft, and joining Democrats to approve spending more than $40 billion on Ukraine.
Julie Clark, the Medina County Republican Party chair, told Texas Scorecard that the MCRP is dedicated to advocating for citizens’ goals and priorities.
Upholding the duties and responsibilities of the office I was elected to serve by representing the constituents and the Republican Party of Texas is my top priority. The censure of Tony Gonzales was a unanimous decision and deemed necessary by the Republicans of Medina County.
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