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By: The opinion Posted Mar 05, 2023, 1:17 am EST
He Republican Party of Texas voted Saturday to censure Rep. Tony Gonzales for not following party lines and voting in favor of various House bills, rather than against.
Tony Gonzales is a politician and Army veteran who has served as the representative for Texas’ 23rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives since 2021, according to Congress.gov.
At its quarterly meeting in Austin, the 64-member Republican State Executive Committee passed a no-confidence resolution by a vote of 57-5, with one abstention.
The Texas Republican Party said in a statement that it is imposing the “full set of penalties allowed by the rules, for failure to adhere to Republican principles and priorities.”
“Texas Republican Party Rule 44 allows the party to censure elected officials who violate the principles and priorities of the Texas Republican Party three or more times in a given biennium,” the state party said.
In the resolution of the state party to censure González, the Texas Republican Party cited support for the Respect Marriage Act, which was signed late last year and calls for same-sex marriages to be recognized at the federal level and, if they occurred in states where they are legal, would be recognized in all other states.
They also criticize him for being the only Republican in January who voted against of a package of budget-cutting rules in the House of Representatives, and did so out of concerns about possible cuts to the defense budget.
Another of the criticized votes was that of support bipartisan gun legislation passed in the wake of several high-profile shootingssuch as the massacre that occurred in Uvalde, Texas, which Gonzales represents.
Gonzales was one of 14 House Republicans to join the Democrats to vote for the bipartisan gun bill, which President Joe Biden signed into law last year.
A spokesman for the congressman’s campaign hit back at the state GOP in a statement cited by The Hill, suggesting that Gonzales was representing his constituents through his work.
“Today, like every day, Congressman Tony Gonzales went to work on behalf of the people of TX-23. He spoke with veterans, visited with Border Patrol agents and met with voters in a county that turned from blue to red,” the campaign spokesperson said. “The Texas Republican Party would do well to follow his lead and do some real work.”
With information from The Hill and NBC News
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