How Katy Padilla Stout wins.
Herrera starts 4.5 points ahead on our starting line from 2026 polls. Stout needs 10,194 net votes, and the math closes using 57 percent of what history allows. The most net votes are in Precinct 2154 (Bexar County), Precinct 1151 (Bexar County) and Precinct 1141 (Bexar County).
Stout can win. The math closes using 57 percent of what history allows.
111,949 votes.
That is half of the 223,897 ballots we expect in this race, plus one. Where Stout stands today, and what is missing:
Starting line: Herrera +4.6 among decided voters, from published 2026 polls, applied to each precinct's pattern in the 2022 and 2024 official returns. 2026 turnout modeled on 2022, the last midterm.
18% today. 51% with the plan.
We ran this race 20,000 times with realistic error on every assumption. Drag the slider to see the odds move as the campaign captures more of what history says is available.
Each simulation draws the starting line with an error of 5 points of margin (the starting line comes from 2026 polls) and lets the plan over- or under-deliver by 30 percent. Seeded and reproducible; the method and data are at the bottom of the page.
The gap closes three ways.
Change minds. Bring out voters who skip midterms. Win back the third-party vote. Every pool below is counted from official precinct returns and published polls.
Who. Ticket splitters and the 10 percent still undecided in the latest poll: 15,546 leaning Herrera today.
How. Live conversations on the call list that matters: voters who crossed party lines, plus the undecided. Stout needs to win 28 percent of the ones now leaning Herrera.
Who. At least 35,129 people who voted in 2024 but not in 2022, in precincts where Stout's side wins at least 55 percent.
How. Voter ID calls to people who voted in 2024 and skipped 2022, then a ballot chase until each one has voted.
Who. Voters who went third party in recent races, in the precincts that lean Stout's way.
How. A direct appeal to voters who went third party last time. They have already shown they will leave the two-party default.
Together: 10,703 net votes against a gap of 10,194. That is a win.
12 precincts carry 18% of it.
Ranked by the net votes each one gives the plan. The darker the county, the more of the upset lives there.
- 01+219Precinct 2154 (Bexar County)persuadeStarting line Stout +25. 4.3% split their ticket. About 925 more ballots in 2024 than in 2022 (estimate).
- 02+205Precinct 1151 (Bexar County)mobilizeStarting line Stout +22. 4.5% split their ticket. About 1,488 more ballots in 2024 than in 2022 (estimate).
- 03+205Precinct 1141 (Bexar County)mobilizeStarting line Stout +22. 4.0% split their ticket. About 1,493 more ballots in 2024 than in 2022 (estimate).
- 04+158Precinct 3075 (Bexar County)persuadeStarting line Herrera +8. 4.7% split their ticket.
- 05+155Precinct 2115 (Bexar County)persuadeStarting line Stout +12. 3.7% split their ticket.
- 06+152Precinct 2136 (Bexar County)persuadeStarting line Stout +18. 3.5% split their ticket.
- 07+152Precinct 1128 (Bexar County)mobilizeStarting line Stout +25. 4.5% split their ticket. About 1,138 more ballots in 2024 than in 2022 (estimate).
- 08+148Precinct 3125 (Bexar County)persuadeStarting line Herrera +2. 3.5% split their ticket.
- 09+148Precinct 167 (El Paso County)mobilizeStarting line Stout +34. 3.4% split their ticket. About 771 more ballots in 2024 than in 2022 (estimate).
- 10+147Precinct 2180A (Bexar County)persuadeStarting line Stout +28. 4.4% split their ticket. About 634 more ballots in 2024 than in 2022 (estimate).
- 11+141Precinct 172 (El Paso County)persuadeStarting line Stout +28. 4.3% split their ticket. About 582 more ballots in 2024 than in 2022 (estimate).
- 12+140Precinct 2125 (Bexar County)persuadeStarting line Stout +15. 3.4% split their ticket.
The hidden path.
Precinct 2154 (Bexar County) carries the most.
Precinct 2154 (Bexar County) gives this plan more net votes than any other precinct: 219. It sits at Stout +25 on our starting line, and 4.3 percent of its voters split their ticket in recent elections.
Precinct 1151 (Bexar County) is a turnout race.
Stout's side leads Precinct 1151 (Bexar County) by about 22 points on our starting line, and it cast about 1,488 more ballots in 2024 than in 2022 (an estimate). Roughly that many of its 2024 voters sat out the last midterm; bringing enough of them back nets 108 votes there.
Precinct 3075 (Bexar County) splits its ticket the most.
Of the precincts in this plan, Precinct 3075 (Bexar County) has the highest share of ticket splitters: 4.7 percent. That is where a persuasion call is most likely to reach someone open to crossing over.
The money is close.
As of June 30, 2026, Herrera had $309K in cash on hand to Stout's $171K. A race this close on money is decided on voter contact.
Where voters cross over.
Every dot is a precinct. If no one split a ticket, every dot would sit on the line. The orange ones are where Stout's side lost voters it won further up the ballot.
- Precincts
- 352
- Slope
- 1.039
- R²
- 0.978
- Residual SD
- 3.6 pts
- Crossover precincts
- 52
Weighted least squares, one point per precinct, weighted by ballots cast. Orange precincts sit more than one residual standard deviation below the line: Stout's side did worse there in this race than the top of the ticket predicts. Hover any dot for the precinct.
Voting starts October 19.
- Now to October 5Find them
Voter ID calls across the persuasion list in these precincts. Every conversation tags the voter: with Stout, with Herrera, or undecided. The undecided become the persuasion universe; the supporters become the ballot chase list.
- October 6 to 18Persuade
Second conversations with every undecided and soft voter, built around the one issue they named on the first call. The goal is 8,858 net votes from people who have crossed party lines before.
- October 19 to 25Bank the ballots
Mail ballots are already going out, and in-person early voting runs October 19 through October 30. Mail ballot applications must be received by October 23. Chase every supporter's mail ballot request until it is returned, and move supporters to early voting while it is open.
- October 26 to November 2Turn them out
The drop-off voters: people who voted in 2024 and skipped 2022. At least 35,129 of them live where Stout is favored. In-person early voting ends October 30. Mail ballots count if received by 7 p.m. on November 3, or by 5 p.m. on November 4 if postmarked by Election Day.
- November 3Election day
Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Texas has no same-day registration; the registration deadline is October 5. The last calls go to identified supporters who have not voted, with their polling place in hand.
No wishful thinking.
Official results in this district: Trump carried the 2024 presidential race by 14.8 points; Cruz carried the 2024 U.S. Senate race by 8.2 points; Abbott carried the 2022 governor's race by 10.3 points.
- Stout wins 28 percent of the ticket splitters and undecided voters now leaning Herrera.
- In Precinct 1151 (Bexar County) and Precinct 1141 (Bexar County), 20 percent of the people who voted in 2024 but skipped 2022 come back and vote.
- No national wave is required. The plan closes at 57 percent of what recent Texas results show is possible.
- The starting line comes from published 2026 polls, including campaign or party sponsored polls where those are the only ones; if the true gap is different, so is the plan.
3,783 conversations.
That is how many live voter conversations this plan takes: about 72,202 dials to 24,067 households, before the last ballot is cast.
Call list: every ticket splitter and undecided voter in the targeted places (you cannot tell which way they lean before the call), every targeted drop-off voter, and the reachable third-party voters. About 69 households for every 100 voters on the list, three attempts each, and a 5.24 percent live answer rate per attempt, the per-program average across 1.2 million real 2026 dials in our published benchmarks.
We run this list.
Calls are the voter ID and ballot chase engine of this plan. They find the persuadable voters and the supporters, so every other dollar lands on the right door. The full call program for this list is an estimated $8,346 at our published rates: 24,067 households, three attempts each.
Professional live callers working exactly these precincts: persuasion on the ticket splitters, voter ID on the fence, ballot chase on every absentee request until it is returned. A live dashboard shows every conversation as it happens. Days to launch, not weeks.
Who is on the ballot.
Katy Padilla Stout (D)
Attorney with a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a law degree from South Texas College of Law.
Cash on hand $171,373 and $484,915 raised since January 1, 2025, per FEC reports through June 30, 2026.
Brandon Herrera (R)
Firearms manufacturer and small business owner who studied pre-law at Campbell University and hosts a firearms-focused YouTube channel with more than 4 million subscribers.
Cash on hand $309,023 and $1,937,719 raised since January 1, 2025, per FEC reports through June 30, 2026.
Ben Mendoza (I)
Independent candidate certified for the November 3, 2026 ballot in the 23rd District.
What changed, and when.
We re-run this race as new polls, fundraising reports and early vote counts arrive. Every change to the numbers is logged here.
- September 26, 2026Underdog plan published
Starting line: Herrera +4.5. Katy Padilla Stout needs 10,194 net votes. Odds 18% today, 51% with the plan.
Questions
Can Katy Padilla Stout win Texas's 23rd Congressional District in 2026?
Yes, on the math. Katy Padilla Stout needs 10,194 net votes, and recent Texas results show about 18,784 are reachable through persuasion, turnout and third-party voters. The plan closes the gap using 57 percent of that.
Where are the votes Katy Padilla Stout needs?
Ranked by net votes in the plan: Precinct 2154 (Bexar County), Precinct 1151 (Bexar County), Precinct 1141 (Bexar County), Precinct 3075 (Bexar County), Precinct 2115 (Bexar County). Persuadable voters are counted from ticket splitting in 2022 and 2024 official returns; turnout targets are people who voted in 2024 and skipped 2022.
How many voters does Katy Padilla Stout need to persuade?
About 4,429 voters who lean Brandon Herrera today, each worth two votes of margin when they switch. That is 28 percent of the 15,546 persuadable voters leaning Brandon Herrera.
When does early voting start in Texas in 2026?
In-person early voting in Texas runs October 19 through October 30, 2026. The voter registration deadline is October 5, and applications for a mail ballot must be received by October 23. Mail ballots count if received by 7 p.m. on Election Day, or by 5 p.m. the next day if postmarked by Election Day. Texas does not offer same-day registration.
Who made this analysis?
The Political Group, an independent campaign services firm, from official Texas Secretary of State precinct returns, Census data, FEC filings and published polls. It is not affiliated with any candidate or party.
Method and sources
Precinct math from official Texas Secretary of State returns for 2022 and 2024, projected onto current district lines. Polls, ratings and fundraising as published on the dates shown. This is independent analysis by The Political Group, as of September 26, 2026. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by any candidate or party, and it is written for every campaign that starts behind.
Statistics: a weighted least squares crossover regression on every precinct, and 20,000 seeded Monte Carlo simulations. The baseline error (5 points of margin) and plan efficacy spread (30 percent) are our stated assumptions. Download the precinct data (CSV, ready for JASP). Free to cite under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page.
- Texas Secretary of State, election results
- Texas Legislative Council redistricting (PLANC2333)
- FEC candidate filings (OpenFEC)
- 2026 voter contact benchmarks (The Political Group)
- Poll: Remington Research Group (2026-07-25 to 2026-07-28)
- Poll: Public Policy Polling (2026-03-10 to 2026-03-11)
Race coverage
- Wikipedia: Texas's 23rd congressional district
- Ballotpedia: Texas' 23rd Congressional District election, 2026
- Ballotpedia: Brandon Herrera
- Ballotpedia: Katy Padilla Stout
- Ballotpedia: Ben Mendoza