Arguing that character in politics still matters, Katy Padilla Stout, an attorney and former teacher, sees an opportunity to flip a red district in south Texas that President Donald Trump won by 15 points in the last presidential election. 

Padilla Stout is the Democratic nominee in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, where she’s now set to face hard-right influencer and GOP nominee Brandon Herrera, who brings significant baggage to the House race. Herrera became the presumptive GOP nominee after Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), who is more moderate and had demonstrated crossover appeal, withdrew from the race under an increasing cloud of scandal.

Herrera has repeatedly come under fire for social media videos in which he used imagery from and made light of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust, which he has dismissed as jokes. He also recently attracted controversy for a podcast appearance in which he discussed owning a copy of Mein Kampf, though he denied agreeing with the Nazi manifesto.

Padilla Stout told Jewish Insider in an interview this week that, since entering the race, she saw a path to victory against either Gonzales or Herrera, given Gonzales’ reported scandals and Herrera’s incendiary activity. 

“I didn’t want someone like [Herrera] representing my children,” Padilla Stout said. “And then when I realized that he was going to be representing the county of Uvalde,” the site of a 2022 mass school shooting, “I decided to go ahead and put my name in the ring.” She accused Herrera of espousing bigotry toward various groups.

But she said that she views Herrera as a weaker opponent than Gonzales would have been.

“Even with his scandal, Tony was still an incumbent. He’s still been there for six years. He had name recognition. He had people who obviously were still supporting him, even post-scandal,” Padilla Stout said. 

“Now that we’re able to only run a race against Mr. Herrera, I think that there are stark differences between the two of us, I think that many people who possibly were more moderate would have said, ‘OK, I can vote for Tony again,’ aren’t in that same boat now. And so I think that that definitely makes this race more winnable.”

Herrera campaign manager Kimmie Gonzalez dismissed the criticisms of the GOP nominee as misleading.

“The accusations against Brandon were manufactured through misleading video edits by one desperate candidate who lost, and are now being weaponized by another desperate candidate who will lose in November. Brandon is proud of his support from the Jewish community and does not have an antisemitic bone in his body,” Gonzalez said in a statement to JI.

“What is, in fact, disqualifying are our opponent’s horrendous policies, including reopening the southern border, bringing back Joe Biden’s ‘catch and release’ program, and advocating for taking children to drag shows. Her values are not just out of touch with Southwest Texas voters, they are downright dangerous,” Gonzalez continued.

Though the Cook Political Report previously rated the district as “solid Republican,” the election handicapper gave Democrats a better chance of winning after Gonzales dropped out, shifting its rating to “likely Republican.”

A recent Public Policy Polling survey conducted for the House Majority PAC, which is aligned with House Democratic leadership, found Padilla Stout and Herrera nearly tied, with 18% of voters undecided.

Republicans have insisted they’ll have no issue winning the seat, regardless of their nominee.

“Texas’ 23rd District is deep red, and Democrats know it. While they talk a big game in Washington, they don’t even have a credible recruit and are too busy defending their own vulnerable members across Texas to compete here,” NRCC spokesman Christian Martinez said in a statement to JI earlier this month. “In November, voters will once again elect a Republican who will secure the border, lower costs, and stand up for Texas families.”

Padilla Stout said that she felt a “deep sense of disgust” with Herrera’s past videos. She dismissed his claims that the incidents were only intended in jest, calling the pattern “really concerning,” particularly when coupled with Herrera’s longtime membership in a neo-Confederate group.

“Everybody who watched it understood that he was normalizing that and that it wasn’t funny, and it wasn’t about humor,” Padilla Stout said. “It was about doing something that was harmful to our society and desensitizing people.”

Padilla Stout said that, living in a conservative area, reaching out to GOP-leaning voters she’ll need to win the seat is natural to her, and that she has many conservative friends. And, she claims, Republicans tell her frequently they’re not willing to vote for Herrera.

“I think we just appeal to a lot of people in the sense that we’re a pretty common-sense campaign, I’m not an extreme leftist, and so I think that that’s helpful for people who maybe haven’t voted for a Democrat before,” she continued. “But I think most importantly, our message is people over politics.”

Asked how she would tackle rising antisemitism in the United States more broadly, Padilla Stout called for stronger laws against hate crimes to protect all communities targeted by bigotry and ensure that such crimes are properly prosecuted and punished.

Padilla Stout largely declined to weigh in on Israel or Middle East policy, citing her lack of access to sensitive information that members of Congress can access. She said she would wait until she’s elected in order to more fully articulate her views.

“First and foremost, I always stand for happy, healthy families, whether that be, you know, here or across the world, and making sure that our children are protected and making sure that we’re taking care of our most vulnerable,” she said.

She said she doesn’t know enough about the conflict in Gaza to judge whether it is a genocide, and said that she would consider U.S. aid to Israel on a “case-by-case basis.” 

She said she has discussed the conflict with a Jewish friend whose son is serving in the IDF as well as a Palestinian friend, from whom she has heard different perspectives and concerns on the conflict. “That’s the most helpful thing we can always do in any kind of conflict situation, is to really kind of understand both sides, right, see where the dialogue breakdown is occurring.”

Addressing the war in Iran, Padilla Stout raised concerns around the administration’s decision not to seek congressional approval before launching U.S. strikes.

“Our servicemembers deserve to know that if they’re in a conflict or in a war that that’s based on a really hard decision that has been made after looking at intelligence, after having briefings by multiple sources, by multiple people,” Padilla Stout said. “It was a little bit reckless to start this, when anybody can start a war, and it’s going to take a lot more diplomacy to be able to stop one. And I’m just concerned that we may be in over our heads right now.”