On Thursday, small business owner and “accomplished health industry leader” Julie Clark announced in a press release the unveiling of what her campaign is calling the district's first TV ad of next year’s election cycle. Clark is gearing up to duke it out with U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, whom she accuses of just not being conservative enough.
The ad is set to air over the next couple of weeks on “conservative cable news channels,” per the release. Its narrator speaks with an Australian-esque accent as exotic wildlife walks around on screen.
“G’day mates,” the voiceover actor says. “Today, we are on the hunt for the elusive rhino.” (Here appears some clips of gray rhinos putzing about in the African safari.) “No, not rhinos. RINOs: Republicans in Name Only.”
Soon, images of certain conservative politicians begin to flash before viewers’ eyes, namely lawmakers who’ve broken ranks with former President Donald Trump like former Congresswoman Liz Cheney and one-time GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney.
Eventually, Texas’ own Gonzales fills the screen. The narrator explains that the congressman is “trying to take away our guns,” among other supposedly nefarious non-conservative schemes.
The narration is then taken over by a dude with a thick Texas drawl who explains the ways in which Clark is, apparently, a total badass. At one point, the firebrand is filmed shooting a gun that's probably half her height.
“Julie Clark is 100% pro-gun, 100% pro-life and 100% pro-Texas,” the narrator says, apparently not noticing the considerable contrast between the first two terms. “It’s time we take out the RINO and replace them with real American patriots.”
(Gonzales spent two decades serving in the Navy before retiring from a role with the “highest enlisted ranking in the military,” but go off.)
Clark isn’t the only one gunning for Gonzales’ seat. A former special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement named Victor Avila announced last week that he’s ready to do battle in the GOP primary, too.
It’s clear that Gonzales’ back-to-back Republican challengers have begun to smell blood. Earlier this month, the congressman was censured by the state’s GOP. Conservative Texas leaders weren’t exactly jazzed about his voting record on topics including border security.
The Republican Party of Texas was also displeased that Gonzales had voted to safeguard same-sex marriage protections at the federal level, and that he voted last year in favor of more gun restrictions. The latter came in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting in May, which claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers. Uvalde is in Gonzales’ district.
"You can easily end up with a candidate too far to the right to be competitive in that district." – Dr. Cal Jillson, SMU political science professor
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The censure didn’t seem to ruffle Gonzales’ feathers all that much, though. Afterward, his campaign responded with a statement: “Today, like every day, Congressman Tony Gonzales went to work on behalf of the people of TX-23. ... The Republican Party of Texas would be wise to follow his lead and do some actual work.”
It's possible that Gonzales will be defeated in the Republican primary come 2024, said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. Although he's unsure whether Clark would be the one to emerge victorious, Jillson described the censured incumbent as "vulnerable."
Another possibility is that Gonzales and his GOP competition "bloody each other" so much that a Democrat snags the seat, he said.
As far as the censure goes, there aren't any formal consequences to it, such as fines or declaring Gonzales ineligible for office, Jillson said. Rather, it's an "informal sanction for being insufficiently steady as a conservative."
The Associated Press adds that the censure means the Texas GOP can spend cash come 2024 to "remind primary voters about the rebuke" if Gonzales chooses to run for office once more.
There may be something to the "RINO" label, Jillson continued. The congressman is more moderate than many in the GOP, but then again, Texas' 23rd District is a bit more evenly balanced along the partisan divide.
"So you can easily end up with a candidate too far to the right to be competitive in that district," Jillson said, "in the same way that Democrats could end up with a candidate too far to the left."
