Democrat Katy Padilla Stout speaks during a press conference at the Bexar County Courthouse. Credit: Jacob R. Lopez

Former Transportation Secretary and 2020 Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday weighed in on the race for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, which spans from San Antonio’s far West Side to the outskirts of El Paso.

Buttigieg endorsed Democrat Katy Padilla Stout, an attorney and former public school teacher who’s running against Brandon Herrera, a controversial YouTuber known for his online gun reviews and propensity for outrageous statements.

The endorsement comes with fewer than 100 days until the election in a district Democrats hope to flip blue this cycle. The district is seen as competitive, in part due to scandals linked to its former representative, Republican Tony Gonzales, who resigned in April after admitting to having an affair with a staffer who later took her own life by setting herself on fire.

“While Washington-style politics has rewarded self-serving politicians, Katy Padilla Stout is running for Congress with a focus on integrity and a true commitment to her community,” Buttigieg said. “A lifelong Texan raised by a single mother, she became a public school teacher and then an attorney committed to strengthening systems that protect vulnerable kids. In Washington, she will be a grounded force for change to secure affordable health care, strengthen our public schools, and protect Texas’s children and families. I am proud to endorse her campaign because America will benefit when she brings her grit and compassion to service in Congress.”

Padilla Stout’s campaign has focused on preventing the construction of Trump’s border wall in Big Bend, advocating for universal pre-K and encouraging Congress to protect the Voting Rights Act.

Buttigieg has spent this election cycle traveling the country to support progressive candidates and causes. So far, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has endorsed more than 50 candidates, including San Antonio area Democrat Johnny Garcia, who’s running to represent the recently redrawn U.S. House District 35.

Buttigieg’s endorsement comes days after the Current reported on new controversy surrounding Herrera, the GOP nominee for Texas’ 23rd District. In a resurfaced video, Herrera — also known by his online persona, the “AK Guy” — referred to children as “cum trophies” and told mothers that “just because you let somebody creampie you doesn’t mean I have to give a shit about your political opinions.”

When a female reporter from the Austin-American-Statesman asked Herrera to clarify his remarks, his team sent her a photo of a cream pie — a move Padilla Stout called highly concerning.

“Brandon Herrera’s remarks are profoundly grotesque, but his response when asked to account for them was even more revealing,” Padilla Stout told the Current. “Instead of demonstrating good judgment and basic decency, he doubled down. This is not mere political incorrectness. It is cruelty as entertainment and treating accountability as something beneath him. Those are dangerous qualities in someone seeking to represent us in Congress. We need a representative focused on solving real problems, not a professional provocateur using public office to shock people and chase attention.”

However, the resurfaced clip is only the latest controversy to hound Herrera, who also took heat during his failed 2024 bid for the same seat for poking fun at veteran suicides, joking about the Holocaust and mocking the appearance of President Donald Trump’s son Barron.

This election cycle, Herrera’s campaign has also come under scrutiny over accusations by a campaign-finance watchdog group that it funneled $2.7 million in contributions into a shell company to avoid reporting how the money was actually spent. In a statement to the Current, Herrera’s campaign described the allegations as “meritless” and “little more than a recycled legal theory.”

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...