Republican Brandon Herrera is leading Democrat Katy Padilla Stout in the race for Texas’s 23rd Congressional District, an exclusive poll obtained by Breitbart News revealed.
Second Amendment activist and small business owner Herrera advanced as the candidate after forcing former Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) to a runoff. This was later canceled as Gonzales resigned from Congress after his affair scandal rose to the national spotlight.
The Remington Research Group survey showed Herrera leading his Democrat opponent in the race by six percentage points. The survey asked, “Candidates in the November 2026 General Election for United States Congress are listed below. If the election were held today, for whom would you vote?”
The survey showed Herrera with 47 percent of the vote – six points above Democrat Katie Padilla Stout. Another ten percent said they are undecided, and two percent said “someone else.”
Republican congressional candidate Brandon Herrera pins are displayed during a campaign rally at the Constantino S Pizza restaurant on February 26, 2026 in Somerset, Texas. Herrera is campaigning in the primary race for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The survey was taken July 25-28, 2026, among 572 likely general election voters. The margin of error is +/- 4.3 percent.
Herrera said in a statement obtained by Breitbart News, “I think these numbers reflect something that should be obvious. Texans do not want to be represented by radical leftists who want to indoctrinate children with LGBTQ ideology, restart the border crisis, and raise our taxes.”
Herrera’s platform includes prioritizing border security, rejecting any new taxes, defending Second Amendment Rights, opposing government funding of abortion, championing school choice, and opposing “endless wars.”
In contrast, Stout prioritizes rejecting the Big Bend border wall, imposing limits on Second Amendment rights, greenlighting abortion, rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, and pushing for universal pre-k.
In an August 18 update, Herrera revealed that his campaign “raised more money in the first 45 days of Q3 than my opponent Katy Stout has raised in her entire political career.”
A release reveals that Herrera raised over $600,000 total since the July 1st start of the third quarter.
“For her entire campaign, Democrat Socialist-aligned Katy Stout reports raising just $484,915.03, with just $171,372.78 cash on hand after spending thousands of dollars on cookies and other snacks,” his campaign announcement said, as Herrera touted their success in small dollar donations.
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