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Elections · U.S. House · Texas

2026 Texas House race, District 23

Brandon Herrera (Republican), Katy Padilla Stout (Democrat) and Ben Mendoza (Independent) are on the November 3, 2026 ballot for U.S. House in Texas District 23, as recorded September 21, 2026 from the Texas Secretary of State.

The November ballot

Herrera
$1.9M
Stout
$485K

Raised so far, filed with the FEC

Also in this race: Ben Mendoza (Independent).

Certified list: Texas Secretary of State; Certified List of Write-In Candidates (Federal, State, and District), including four U.S. Senate write-ins; Independent Candidate Filings for 2026, with each applicant's outcome. Faces and bars are the campaigns that hold the seat or have $25,000 raised or outside spending on file; being outside that group is a filing fact, not a mark. Not a prediction.

The seat

Open seat

No sitting member is on file for this seat.

How to vote in Texas

  • General electionNovember 3, 2026 

Register 30 days before the election.

All dates and rules
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How they won the primary

The primary · 59,222 votes

  • Katy Padilla Stout Won: 52.1% 30,828
  • Santos Limon: 27.1% 16,077
  • Bruce Richardson: 11.8% 6,968
  • Gretel Enck: 9.0% 5,349

Primary source: Texas Secretary of State official Democratic primary results.

Primary results as recorded October 12, 2026, ordered by votes. A primary result is a recorded fact about a past contest, not a prediction of November.

The money on this race

Raised by candidates
$5.7M
Outside money
$2.1M

Outside money, for and against

Supporting Herrera$913K
Opposing Herrera$428K
Supporting Stout$157K
Opposing Stout$409K

Independent expenditures; direction is each filer's own declared filing. The other $195K of the race's $2.1M was spent on candidates not listed here. No outside money is on file for or against the other name on this ballot.

Where each candidate's money comes from

<1%$17KSmall donors$190K39%
3%$68KLarge donors$250K52%
3%$63KPACs$23K5%
22%$420KSelf-funding$9.8K2%
71%$1.4MOther$12K2%

Small donors give $200 or less; PACs are political action committees. Shares of each candidate's own receipts on file with the FEC. Outside money is not part of these figures.

Other includes money transferred in from committees the candidate authorized, such as a joint fundraising committee, which reports its own donors to the FEC: Brandon Herrera $1.4M.

Who is spending on this race

The largest groups spending independently here, ranked; open a row for whose race the money went into.

1 to 5 of 13 groups

Independent expenditures reported to the FEC; direction is each group's own declared filing.

Not on the November ballot

11 filed

Primary candidates who did not advance, committees still on file, and candidacies that ended. Being here is a filing fact, not a mark against anyone.

The district

Census context
People
771K
Median household income
$79K
Unemployment
4.7%
Living below the poverty line
13.6%
Without health insurance
15.1%

U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year estimates. Context about the district, not a statement about any candidate. These figures describe the district as drawn before its lines changed for 2026; estimates for the new lines are not yet published.

How this seat voted last time

R+25 in 2024

  • Tony Gonzales Won: 62.3%
  • S. Limon: 37.7%

290,093 votes for candidates. The district's lines have changed since this result. A past result is a filed fact, not a prediction of November.

Certified returns via MIT Election Data and Science Lab, from the House Clerk's election statistics and state canvasses.

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Candidates and financing from the FEC, public domain. Candidate totals are each campaign's latest FEC report, ending between June 30, 2025 and September 30, 2026. Outside money is the FEC's processed total of independent expenditures plus the 24- and 48-hour reports filed since each group's latest regular report. It covers this two-year cycle, the same as the candidate totals. Dataset built 2026-10-12. Nothing here is a forecast, a grade, or a ranking of candidates.