Election 2026
Independent, source-first accountability
Issue record
In short
Flores's campaign would oppose benefit cuts, keep benefits in line with living costs and fight elder fraud. Gonzalez's campaign cites his votes for the Social Security Fairness Act and against the 2025 reconciliation law. Royal said in 2024 that seniors should get the benefits they paid into; Espinoza's campaign would give recipients a raise. Gonzalez cast both votes; he cosponsored the Fairness Act and signed the petition forcing its vote, but never sponsored it.
Campaign positions
His campaign says he will oppose any effort to cut seniors' earned benefits, fight to keep them in line with the true cost of living, support wider access to affordable prescription drugs, and push for stronger protection against elder fraud.
His campaign commits him to safeguarding the programmes that give seniors financial security and health care, and names two votes: for the Social Security Fairness Act in 2024 and against the 2025 reconciliation act.
In his 2024 candidate survey he said seniors should receive the Social Security benefits they are entitled to because they paid into the system. His current site does not address it.
His platform would give Social Security recipients a raise.
Evidence timeline
official action
He voted against H.R. 1 both times it came to a recorded House vote, on May 22 and July 3, 2025, and it became law on July 4.
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.
official action
He cosponsored it in four Congresses, signed the petition that forced the vote and voted for it, but he never sponsored it and nothing shows him managing it.
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. 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.
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Eric Flores for Congress · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Campaign-controlled source. Eight subjects: South Texas and the Coastal Bend, the cost of living, infrastructure, water, veterans, seniors, farmers and ranchers, and small business. There is no section on health care, education or the border, though the home page lists securing the border among his priorities.
candidate statement
For: Eric Flores: campaign position
Vicente Gonzalez for Congress · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Campaign-controlled source. Seven subjects: affordability, seniors, women's rights, education, veterans, health care and jobs. It states goals rather than proposals, and names no bill. There is no section on the border, energy or campaign finance.
candidate statement
For: Vicente Gonzalez: campaign position
Vicente Gonzalez for Congress · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Campaign-controlled source and the page where he makes claims about his own record: seven sections on the economy, jobs, seniors, veterans, women's rights, health care and education. Every quoted sentence on this desk was matched against the live page.
candidate statement
For: Vicente Gonzalez: campaign position; Vicente Gonzalez: Matches stated record claim; Vicente Gonzalez: Matches stated direction
Ballotpedia · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Carries his own answers to Ballotpedia's candidate survey, given in 2024 when he was running for this seat as an independent. They are his words but they are two years old, and he was not on the 2024 general-election ballot. Used for his biography and for positions where his current site says nothing, each marked with its year. The page lists a personal Facebook account.
candidate statement
For: Chris Royal: campaign position
Chris Royal for Congress · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
A one-page site built on a website builder, much of it marked under construction. It carries no paid-for line, so it was identified by its name, its Libertarian content and its closing request to vote for Chris Royal in November; it is the address search results give for his campaign. It links no social account. Read September 23, 2026.
candidate statement
For: Chris Royal: campaign position
Espinoza For Congress · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Campaign-controlled source; his platform as a list.
candidate statement
For: Eddie Espinoza: campaign position
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Recorded vote of May 22, 2025; the question was on passage; it passed 215-214. Read from the Clerk's roll-call XML by Gonzalez's member ID, G000581, which Congress.gov's by-state listing for the 119th Congress gives for him.
official legislative record
For: Vicente Gonzalez: Matches stated record claim
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Recorded vote of July 3, 2025; the question was on the motion to concur in the Senate amendment; it carried 218-214. Read from the Clerk's roll-call XML by Gonzalez's member ID, G000581, which Congress.gov's by-state listing for the 119th Congress gives for him.
official legislative record
For: Vicente Gonzalez: Matches stated record claim
Congress.gov · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Used for the fact that the bill became Public Law 119-21 on July 4, 2025. What the law does to Medicare or to programmes for seniors, which his campaign describes, is not assessed here.
official legislative record
For: Vicente Gonzalez: Matches stated record claim
Congress.gov · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Sponsor Garret Graves of Louisiana; 330 cosponsors. Gonzalez joined as a cosponsor on January 24, 2023, three weeks after introduction, and is not an original cosponsor. Became Public Law 118-273 on January 5, 2025.
official legislative record
For: Vicente Gonzalez: Matches stated direction
U.S. Government Publishing Office · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Enacted text: repeals the government pension offset and the windfall elimination provision.
official legislative record
For: Vicente Gonzalez: Matches stated direction
Congress.gov · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Sponsored by Rodney Davis; 195 cosponsors. Gonzalez joined on February 14, 2018. Referred to committee; did not become law.
official legislative record
For: Vicente Gonzalez: Matches stated direction
Congress.gov · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Sponsored by Rodney Davis; 264 cosponsors. Gonzalez joined on January 9, 2019. Referred to committee; did not become law.
official legislative record
For: Vicente Gonzalez: Matches stated direction
Congress.gov · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Sponsored by Rodney Davis; 305 cosponsors. Gonzalez is an original cosponsor, dated January 4, 2021, the day of introduction. Placed on the Union Calendar; did not become law.
official legislative record
For: Vicente Gonzalez: Matches stated direction
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
The motion Garret Graves filed on September 10, 2024 to discharge the rule for H.R. 82, and its signatures. Gonzalez is signature 103, dated September 10, 2024, the day it opened. Its signature dates run from September 10 to September 19, 2024.
official legislative record
For: Vicente Gonzalez: Matches stated direction
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives · Reviewed Sep 23, 2026
Recorded vote of November 12, 2024; the question was on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill; it carried 327-75. Read from the Clerk's roll-call XML by Gonzalez's member ID, G000581, which Congress.gov's by-state listing for the 119th Congress gives for him.
official legislative record
For: Vicente Gonzalez: Matches stated direction