West Texas Election Results: GOP Holds Ground as Democrats Flip CD 23

Katy Padilla Stout won Congressional District 23, flipping a region long held by the Republican Party.

While much of West Texas remained deep red during the 2026 midterm elections, the Democratic momentum that swept through the state found a critical foothold in the far west.

The results signal a tightening political landscape in a state experiencing a notable Democratic ascendancy. According to reporting from The Texan, Padilla Stout won 52.13 percent of the total vote, defeating Republican candidate Brandon Herrera, who earned 43.97 percent. This outcome stands in stark contrast to the 2024 election, when incumbent U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales won the same district by 24.6 points.

Padilla Stout’s win was fueled by massive margins in El Paso, Zavala, and Presidio counties. She also carried Brewster, Culberson, Val Verde, Maverick, and Frio counties, along with portions of Bexar County, based on unofficial results from the Texas Secretary of State.

Red bastions hold firm in central West Texas

Despite the shift in the far west, the core of West Texas’s conservative identity remained largely intact. In Congressional District 11, incumbent U.S. Rep. August Pfluger maintained his seat, though the margin reflected the impact of recent redistricting. Pfluger received 59.5 percent of the vote, while Democrat Claire Reynolds earned 40.5 percent.

The district’s partisan leaning sits at R-67% according to the Texan’s Texas Partisan Index (TPI), a decrease from the R-74% rating it held before mid-decade GOP-led redistricting. While Pfluger dominated most counties, he lost both Travis and Williamson counties, which served to temper his overall victory. The inclusion of parts of Travis County—a typically blue-voting area—into the district was a direct result of those redistricting efforts.

Congressional District 19 proved even more resistant to the blue wave. Candidate Tom Sell secured the seat with nearly 69.5 percent of the total vote, running against Democrat Kyle Rable. The TPI rates CD 19 as an R-78% bastion, one of the strongest Republican strongholds in the state.

Sell won by large margins in the district's most populous areas. He secured Taylor County by 40 percentage points and Lubbock County by nearly 30 points.

Election '26 : Katie Padilla Stout skeaks as election results come in — KABB FOX San Antonio

“We must continue to build on these wins and unleash our West Texas economy by backing the sectors that power our communities: our energy producers, our farmers, our ranchers, our main street businesses, the military families that serve here, and everything in between,” Sell told The Texan.

“I intend to work closely with my colleagues in Congress, regardless of their political affiliation,” candidate Tom Sell told The Texan.

Sell and Padilla Stout offer diverging economic visions

The contrast in political messaging between the two sides highlights the diverging visions for the region’s future. While Sell emphasized regional partnerships and the economic contributions of West Texas to the nation, Padilla Stout centered her campaign on the immediate financial pressures facing the working class.

Padilla Stout focused her platform on the cost of living, tax code amendments intended to assist the middle class, and the expansion of Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. She also made the protection of reproductive rights and the implementation of humane immigration laws central to her campaign.

“I think the government has spent a really long time focusing on corporations, focusing on billionaires, thinking that if they made them happy that that would trickle down to the American public. And I think the American people understand firsthand that that’s not how things work.”

Padilla Stout told reporters.

Her legislative agenda also includes addressing energy costs. In an interview with C-SPAN, she said that her goals include “affordability, which is going to mean ending tariffs and ending this war to bring down gas prices.”

Upon her election, Padilla Stout joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus, an organization that advocates for policies such as comprehensive immigration reform, climate action, and universal health care. The caucus is currently chaired by U.S. Rep. Greg Casar and deputy-chaired by U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar.

The election results present a complex map for the incoming Congress. While Republicans like Sell and Pfluger maintain control over the energy and agricultural hubs of the region, the Democratic presence in CD 23 introduces a new progressive voice to a territory that has voted Republican since 2014.

It is unclear whether Democrats can replicate their gains in the more populous, traditionally Republican counties of Midland or Lubbock.