On April 14, 2026, two members of Congress resigned on the same day. Republican Tony Gonzales of Texas quit under pressure from House Republicans amid a sex scandal. Democrat Eric Swalwell of California quit the same day.

California has already picked a replacement. Voters there elected Democrat Aisha Wahab last week to serve out Swalwell's term.

Texas's seat is still empty. It has been empty for more than 130 days, and it is not on track to be filled until January.

Who is going without

The 23rd Congressional District runs from northwest San Antonio all the way to El Paso, across most of the Texas border with Mexico. About 800,000 people live in it. Since April, none of them has had a vote in the U.S. House.

Greg Abbott has the sole power to call the special election that would fix that. He has not called one, and he has not said why.

This is not against the law. Congress leaves it to the states to set special elections, and there is no federal deadline. That is precisely the point: nothing forced Abbott's hand, and nothing stopped him. Leaving 800,000 Texans unrepresented for most of a year was a choice he made and has continued making every day since April.

For scale: over the last four years, congressional vacancies have been filled in less than 180 days on average. If this seat waits until January, it will have been vacant roughly 260 days.

He has done it before, and worse

This is Abbott's second long vacancy in two years, and the first one was longer.

When U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner died in March 2025, Abbott left Houston's 18th Congressional District — a heavily Democratic seat — vacant for 334 days. Nearly a full year with no vote in Congress for one of the largest cities in America.

Christian Menefee, the Democrat who eventually won that seat, has filed legislation to force governors to move faster. "When a member passes away or resigns, their communities should have their voice restored as soon as possible," he said when he introduced the bill.

Abbott is not alone in this. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis never set a special election either to replace Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat who also resigned in April — in a district that leans heavily Democratic.

The math that explains the silence

Abbott hasn't given a reason, so consider what the delay buys.

Republicans will hold the House 219–214 once Wahab and the winner of Georgia's special election are sworn in. That is a five-seat margin. The 23rd District has been in Republican hands for over a decade — but Democrats have been overperforming in special elections across the country this year, including in places Republicans usually win comfortably.

An election Abbott doesn't call is an election Republicans cannot lose. It is also one seat of margin the House majority never has to defend, in a chamber where a handful of votes decides whether a bill passes.

What the district is missing right now

This is not an abstraction about representation. There is a fight happening in the 23rd District at this moment, and the district has nobody in the House to fight it.

A border security construction project inside Big Bend National Park — which sits in the district — has drawn bipartisan outrage. Abbott himself pressured the Department of Homeland Security to pause it. But the landowners and residents who live next to it have no member of Congress to push back on their behalf, no vote on appropriations, no seat at any hearing.

The House Clerk's office has kept staff in place to handle constituent services — chasing down a Social Security check, helping with veterans' benefits. That is the part of the job a caretaker can do. Nobody can cast the votes.

The pattern

Abbott has a habit of arranging the calendar so voters get information, or a voice, after it can no longer affect an outcome. He ordered an audit of Texas data centers to answer voters' questions, then set the deadline 37 days after they vote. He said Texas had caught 6,500 noncitizens on its voter rolls when his own office had confirmed 581.

In November, Republican Brandon Herrera faces Democrat Katy Padilla Stout for the seat. Whoever wins takes office in January — nine months after it fell vacant.

What the record shows

Tony Gonzales resigned on April 14, 2026. More than 130 days later, Greg Abbott has still not called the special election that only he can call, leaving about 800,000 Texans from San Antonio to El Paso with no vote in the U.S. House — on track for a vacancy of roughly 260 days against a national average under 180. Abbott has offered no explanation. A Democrat who resigned the same day in California has already had a successor elected, and the last seat Abbott left open, in Houston, sat empty for 334 days.

Source

Gov. Abbott leaves nearly a million Texans without a vote in Congress — NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, August 29, 2026, carrying Jeremy Wallace's August 26 reporting, credited by NBC to The Dallas Morning News and published the same week in the Houston Chronicle. Photo: Imagn Images via NBC 5.