Current U.S. representative for Texas's 34th Congressional District, in his fifth term; his first three were for the 15th District. Campaign affiliation: Democratic.
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Voter guide
Background, stated goals, record, and money
Background comes from official records, and from the campaign's own biography where the bullet says so; goals are summarized from the campaign's own platform and stay attributed; the record lines are official actions with the government source attached; money is shown as filed, with the filing window and the reconciliation in the note under the table, and is not evidence of why any position was taken.
Vicente Gonzalez
Background
The sitting member for the 34th district since 2023. Congress.gov records five terms, the first three for the 15th district beginning in 2017. Congress.gov
His campaign says he left high school, earned a GED in 1985, then degrees from Del Mar College and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a law degree from what is now Texas A&M University School of Law, and founded his own law practice in 1997. Vicente Gonzalez for Congress
Congress.gov records 53 bills and resolutions sponsored by him across five Congresses. One became law, naming a post office in Brownsville. Congress.gov
Job growth, support for small businesses, and training that leads to better-paid work. Vicente Gonzalez for Congress
What the official record shows
Voted No on passage of the American Health Care Act, the House bill to repeal and replace much of the Affordable Care Act. It passed 217-213 and did not become law. Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives
The rows are lines 11B, 11C and 12 of his committee's 2025-2026 filings through June 30, 2026, grouped by the FEC's recorded type of the contributing committee, memo entries set aside. Each line reconciles to the committee's own summary: party committees $4,788.47, other committees $1,307,061.11, and transfers from joint fundraising committees $557,428.66. Donations individuals made through ActBlue are individual contributions and are not in the table. Also not in the table: the $425,000 still owed to him on a $750,000 loan he made to the committee in 2022, which is not a receipt of this cycle. The rows sum to 1,869,278.24 dollars.
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Words and record
Where statements meet the record
Each card is labeled narrowly, by rule, and states its own limit.
Vicente Gonzalez
Voting against the 2025 reconciliation act
Matches stated record claim
What they say
His campaign says that in 2025 he voted against what it calls the Big, Ugly Bill, which it says cuts hundreds of billions from Medicare and from programmes seniors rely on.
The House Clerk records him voting Nay on passage of H.R. 1 on May 22, 2025 (Roll Call 145, 215-214) and No on concurring in the Senate amendment on July 3 (Roll Call 190, 218-214). It became Public Law 119-21 on July 4.
Limit: He voted against the bill both times it came to a recorded vote in the House, which is the claim. What the law does to Medicare and to programmes for seniors is the campaign's description and is not assessed here.
Vicente Gonzalez
The Social Security Fairness Act
Matches stated direction
What they say
His campaign says that in 2024 he shepherded passage of the Social Security Fairness Act, now law, so retirees receive the full value of their benefits.
“In 2024, he shepherded passage of the Social Security Fairness Act — now law — so retirees receive the full value of their retirement benefits”
The Act is law: H.R. 82 became Public Law 118-273 on January 5, 2025, repealing the government pension offset and the windfall elimination provision. Its sponsor was Garret Graves of Louisiana. Gonzalez cosponsored the Act in each of the four Congresses he served before it passed: in 2018 (H.R. 1205), 2019 (H.R. 141), 2021 (H.R. 82, as an original cosponsor) and 2023, when he joined the final version on January 24, one of 330. When Graves filed a discharge petition on September 10, 2024 to force a floor vote, Gonzalez signed it that day, the 103rd signature. He voted Yea when it passed the House 327-75 on November 12, 2024 (Roll Call 456).
Limit: Every step the record shows goes the way he says, across four Congresses, and the petition was the step that got the bill to the floor. "Shepherded" claims more than that: he sponsored no version, was not an original cosponsor of the one that became law, and was one of 218 members whose signatures forced the vote. Nothing in the record shows him managing the bill.
Vicente Gonzalez
The PACT Act for toxic exposure
Matches stated record claim
What they say
His campaign says he voted to pass the PACT Act so veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during service receive the care they deserve.
“He voted to pass the PACT Act so veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during service receive the care they deserve”
He voted Yea on the House bill, H.R. 3967, on March 3, 2022 (Roll Call 57, 256-174), and Yea on S. 3373, the vehicle that became law, on July 13, 2022 (Roll Call 309, 342-88). It became Public Law 117-168 on August 10, 2022.
Limit: He voted for it at both House votes, including the one on the bill that became law. He was one of 342 members voting for final passage and was not a sponsor.
Vicente Gonzalez
Deportation of honorably discharged veterans
Matches stated direction
What they say
His campaign says he is working to prevent the deportation of honorably discharged veterans.
“He is working to prevent the deportation of honorably discharged veterans”
He has sponsored the Repatriate Our Patriots Act, on noncitizens released from the armed forces under honorable conditions, in four Congresses: H.R. 3429 in 2017, H.R. 1078 in 2019, H.R. 4382 in 2021 and H.R. 717 in 2023. Each was referred to committee and went no further. In December 2022 his amendment to the Veteran Service Recognition Act was agreed to 213-207 (Roll Call 502) and he voted Yea on the bill, which passed the House 220-208 (Roll Call 503) and ended in the Senate.
Limit: Six years of sponsorship and one House-passed bill he amended are evidence of the work the claim describes. None became law. The claim is in the present tense, and Congress.gov records no bill of his on the subject in the current Congress.
Vicente Gonzalez
Federal money for VFW posts
Matches stated record claim
What they say
His campaign says he delivered federal funding to update local Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, so veterans and community members have safe spaces to gather.
“He delivered federal funding to update local Veterans of Foreign Wars posts”
The explanatory statements for three years' appropriations laws each list a VFW post project with him as the House requester. For fiscal 2022, $304,454 for the Brooks County VFW, the Lopez Williams Post, from the Agriculture Department's rural community facilities account (page H1729). For fiscal 2023, $750,000 for a new building for Post 8788 (page S9538), and for fiscal 2024, $850,000 for a new building for Post 2410 (page S2158), both from HUD's Community Development Fund. The three laws are Public Laws 117-103, 117-328 and 118-42, and the three rows come to $1,904,454.
Limit: Three posts in three years, each in an enacted statement with his name in the House requester column, which is where a member's community project funding is recorded. Two of the three paid for new buildings rather than updates to old ones. The statements allocate the money; whether USDA and HUD have paid it out was not checked. Two of the three tables are printed as page images, so those rows were read by eye.
Vicente Gonzalez
A $35 cap on insulin
Matches stated record claim
What they say
His campaign says that in 2021 he voted for historic legislation to cap the cost of insulin at $35 and bring down the cost of medicines.
“In 2021, Vicente voted for historic legislation to cap the cost of insulin at $35”
On November 19, 2021 he voted Yea on the Build Back Better Act (Roll Call 385, 220-213). As passed by the House it would have barred group health plans and individual insurance from charging more than $35 a month for selected insulin products from 2023. That bill did not become law. On August 12, 2022 he voted Yea on the Inflation Reduction Act (Roll Call 420), which limits Medicare cost-sharing for covered insulin products and became Public Law 117-169.
Limit: The 2021 vote is as he describes it. The cap he voted for in 2021 reached private insurance; the cap that became law a year later covers Medicare only. Both votes split almost entirely by party; in 2021 one Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine, voted No.
Vicente Gonzalez
Introducing legislation on prescription drug prices
Matches stated record claim
What they say
His campaign says he has introduced legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
“introduced legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs”
The official text of the Drug Price Transparency in Medicaid Act names him among those who introduced it, twice. H.R. 6101 of December 1, 2021 reads "Mr. Carter of Georgia (for himself and Mr. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas) introduced the following bill", and H.R. 1613 of March 17, 2023 names him first after Carter; Congress.gov lists Carter as sponsor and Gonzalez as an original cosponsor of both. The bill curbs spread pricing by pharmacy benefit managers in Medicaid, and that provision passed the House as section 202 of the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act on December 11, 2023, 320-71, with his Yea (Roll Call 708). In 2025 he was an original cosponsor of the PBM Reform Act (H.R. 4317) and both Pharmacists Fight Back bills (H.R. 6609 and 6610). Three of the PBM Reform Act's six sections, on Medicare drug plans and employer health plans, became law almost word for word as sections 6223, 6224 and 6701 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (Public Law 119-75). He voted Yea when the House passed that act on January 22, 2026 (Roll Call 45) and Nay on the final House vote on February 3 (Roll Call 53). In all he has cosponsored more than twenty drug-price bills, among them the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act in 2019, and voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, whose Medicare drug-price negotiation became law in 2022.
Limit: The bill text uses his verb: it names him among the members who introduced the bill, though Carter was its sponsor and Gonzalez the lead cosponsor. None of the 55 items Congress.gov lists him as sponsoring concerns drug prices. The bill is aimed at what Medicaid pays for drugs, not at the price a patient pays. The Medicaid bill did not become law, and its spread-pricing section is not in the 2025 reconciliation act or the 2026 appropriations act. That act did carry most of the PBM Reform Act, though he voted against its final version.
Vicente Gonzalez
Efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act
Matches stated direction
What they say
His campaign says that since coming to Congress he has voted down Republican efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Social Security.
“Since coming to Congress, Vicente has voted down extremist Republican efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Social Security”
In his first year he voted No on the American Health Care Act, the House bill to repeal and replace much of the Affordable Care Act, which passed 217-213 on May 4, 2017 (Roll Call 256) and did not become law. He also voted Nay at all three House votes on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, from November 16 to December 20, 2017 (Roll Calls 637, 692 and 699). It became Public Law 115-97, whose section 11081 cut the Affordable Care Act's penalty for going without coverage to zero from 2019.
Limit: Two measures, four recorded votes, all in the direction the claim states; they do not score his whole record, and the Medicare and Social Security halves of the sentence are not tested by them. Both passed the House despite his votes: the first died in the Senate and the second became law, so "voted down" describes his votes, not the outcome.
Vicente Gonzalez
Votes on the child tax credit, energy costs and drug prices
Matches stated direction
What they say
His campaign says he voted to extend the child tax credit, fund lower energy and utility costs, reduce prescription drug prices and make it illegal for insurers to charge older people more.
“Vicente voted to extend the child tax credit, deliver funding to lower energy and utility costs, reduce prescription drug prices and make it illegal for insurers to charge older people more”
On November 19, 2021 he voted Yea on the Build Back Better Act (Roll Call 385, 220-213). Its section 137102(a)(1), headed "Extension of child tax credit", would have carried the enlarged credit into 2022; the bill passed the House and did not become law. Earlier that year he voted Yea on the American Rescue Plan Act, on February 27 and on its final House vote on March 10 (Roll Calls 49 and 72), which enlarged the credit for 2021. He voted Yea on the Inflation Reduction Act on August 12, 2022 (Roll Call 420); it sets up Medicare negotiation of certain drug prices and funds home energy rebates, and became Public Law 117-169.
Limit: Three of the four clauses match votes he cast. His vote to extend the child tax credit was on a bill that did not become law, so the enlargement that did become law lasted one year. The fourth clause, on insurers charging older people more, was not matched to any vote; the desk did not find which one it means.
Vicente Gonzalez
Forgiving up to $25,000 of student debt
Matches stated record claim
What they say
His campaign says he has introduced legislation to forgive up to $25,000 in student loan debt.
“He has introduced legislation to forgive up to $25,000 in student loan debt”
He introduced the Student Loan Relief Act as its only sponsor, as H.R. 8514 in 2020 and H.R. 6708 on February 11, 2022. The 2022 text directs the Secretary of Education to cancel or repay the lesser of $25,000 or a borrower's outstanding federal student loan balance. Both were referred to committee and went no further.
He sponsored the Affordable Homeownership Access Act in 2020 (H.R. 5614) and 2021 (H.R. 5013), and the MORE Opportunities for Homeownership Act on February 23, 2026 (H.R. 7647). All three were referred to the Financial Services Committee; none has had a vote.
Limit: Sponsorship is what the claim says, and it is on the record. None of the bills has advanced, so nothing here shows homeownership becoming more accessible.
Vicente Gonzalez
More than $8 billion for the region
No verdict
What they say
His campaign says that since 2017 he has delivered more than $8 billion in federal funding to South Texas.
“Since 2017, Vicente Gonzalez has worked every day for South Texans, delivering more than $8 billion in federal funding to the region.”
What the record does show is project by project. The explanatory statement for the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, which became Public Law 119-75, lists ten Community Development Fund projects with him as the House requester, from $250,000 to $2,000,000 and together $8,265,467, among them a Donna sports complex, a Harlingen animal shelter and a Baffin Bay boat ramp in Kleberg County.
No federal record totals what a member has brought home. Requested projects are listed by name in each year's explanatory statements, but formula grants, agency awards, and highway, port and disaster money carry no member's name, so a career figure of $8 billion cannot be rebuilt from official sources and this desk does not try.
Limit: The one statement read here covers four of that year's twelve appropriations bills, three of them enacted in this law, and earlier years were not totalled. His accomplishments page also says he secured permits for LNG projects at the Port of Brownsville and delivered hundreds of millions for the ship channel; those permits are issued by federal regulators and the channel work by the Army Corps of Engineers, and neither record names a member.
Vicente Gonzalez
LNG permits at the Port of Brownsville
Not comparable yet
What they say
His campaign says he secured permits for LNG projects at the Port of Brownsville.
“He secured permits for LNG projects at the Port of Brownsville”
On February 15, 2024 he voted Yea on the Unlocking our Domestic LNG Potential Act, H.R. 7176 (Roll Call 52, 224-200), one of nine Democrats who did. It would have repealed restrictions on gas exports and imports and required the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to treat them as in the public interest when approving export terminals. It passed the House and did not become law. In November 2022 he was an original cosponsor of the LNG For Allies Act, H.R. 9355, which would have sped up approval of gas exports to U.S. allies.
Limit: LNG terminal permits come from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which the Natural Gas Act gives sole power to approve them. Neither bill names the Brownsville projects, so his record shows support for LNG exports in general, not these permits.
The Secretary of State's final certification lists four candidates for the 34th district: Eric Flores (Republican), Vicente Gonzalez (Democratic), Chris Royal (Libertarian) and Eddie Espinoza (Green).
The Governor signed H.B. 4 of the second called session, redrawing Texas's congressional districts from the 2026 elections. The district now takes in Cameron, Kenedy, Kleberg and Willacy counties and part of Nueces County.