Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales could be censured by state Republicans on Saturday after he voted in favor of a gun security regulation following the tragic Uvalde college taking pictures, which occurred within the congressman’s district.
Gonzales is not any stranger to censure; Medina County Republicans censured Gonzales final month after his votes continued to interrupt from his get together. The censure decision said that Gonzales “demonstrated a sample of motion demonstrably against” the rules of the Republican Celebration of Texas.
The 64-member State Republican Government Committee will vote on the censure decision in Austin on Saturday. In an effort to go, three-fifths of the 64 committee members would wish to vote in favor of the transfer.
“We’ll see how that goes,” Gonzales mentioned on Thursday when requested concerning the potential censure. He added that he’ll not be in attendance throughout Saturday’s vote.
President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the gun security measure that Gonzales supported, into regulation final 12 months within the wake of the Uvalde taking pictures, which took the lives of 19 kids and two lecturers. Gonzales was the one Texas Home GOP member to vote in favor of the invoice, and solely considered one of 14 Republicans whole. “If the vote was right this moment,” Gonzales mentioned on Thursday, “I would vote twice on it if I may.”
On prime of supporting gun management measures, he additionally voted to defend same-sex marriage, and was the solely Republican to vote towards the Home guidelines bundle.
Republicans additionally {accused} Gonzales of being “anti-immigration” after he voted in opposition to fellow Texas Rep. Chip Roy’s invoice that might require DHS to dam migrants from crossing the border whereas their asylum requests are in course of.
Gonzales’ district sits alongside the U.S.-Mexico border for 800 miles. He voted towards the invoice as a result of, he mentioned, “It proposes a complete shutdown at our border to all migrants — leaving no exception for individuals in reliable life-or-death conditions.”
The Texas Republican added, “Not solely is that this excessive — it may additionally result in a larger reliance on smuggling teams for unlawful crossings. There is no such thing as a doubt that we want a harder strategy to frame safety, however to make things better long-term we have to take a deeper have a look at reforming our immigration system, not abolishing it.”
Gonzales has repeatedly stood by his stances, even when they do defect from his get together, and sounded unfazed when the subject of the potential censure arises: “The truth is I’ve taken nearly 1,400 votes, and the bulk of these have been with the Republican Celebration.”
