Democrats solidified their pick in the race to replace Republican U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, but the GOP candidates for his seat are headed for a runoff.

Whoever Republicans pick, the fight for the district in the Texas borderlands is sure to be another pitched battle come November.

Gina Ortiz Jones — who nearly knocked off Hurd in 2018, coming fewer than 1,000 votes short — trounced her four Democratic opponents vying to fill the congressional seat, according to returns released by the Texas Secretary of State’s office.

Jones, 39, a San Antonio native and former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, pulled down nearly 67 percent of the votes.

“We look forward to making sure that this district is finally well-represented,” Jones said at a Democratic watch party at Augie’s Alamo City BBQ Steakhouse.

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The two leading Republicans jostling for Hurd’s spot on the ticket are headed for a runoff, returns show. Navy veteran Tony Gonzales, a 38-year-old San Antonio native who is Hurd’s favorite to take the seat, was leading the nine-candidate Republican field with 28.1 percent.

Gonzales touted backing from key Texas Republicans including U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Land Commissioner George P. Bush and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.

“At the end of the day, I think there’s an opportunity to really circle the Republican Party around us and get us stronger as we head into November,” Gonzales said.

Dropping from an early lead into second place with 23.4 percent was Raul Reyes, 49, of Castroville, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. Reyes is an immigration hardliner and a sharp critic of Hurd.

“He consistently voted with Democrats in his last tenure here,” Reyes said of Hurd. “And that’s why he lost his base.”

Candidates were still waiting on returns from several counties, including Bexar, Medina and Val Verde.

Both men said they support President Donald Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The two Republicans also provided a preview of how they would run against Jones: tying her to a Democratic Party they see as moving further left.

“I think the constituents of District 23 do not embrace socialism and I think that’s what she brings to the table,” Gonzales said. “She’s in the same image and mirror of Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi.”

Reyes echoed that.

“You’ve got Bernie, you’ve got Biden, you’ve got a lot of socialist Democrats running on a platform to give everything away for free,” Reyes said. “And she’s part of that party. That does not match well for this district.”

For her part, Jones painted any GOP candidate as a rubber-stamp for Trump’s policies.

“Unfortunately, most of these folks have turned into lapdogs for this president,” Jones said.

Democratic Party leaders have fretted that a Sanders candidacy could hurt Democrats fighting in tough downballot races. Jones shrugged off those concerns Tuesday night.

“I’m making the case for why I should represent this district and that’s what we’re focused on,” she said.

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Texas’ 23rd congressional district stretches for 550 miles from San Antonio to El Paso along the U.S.-Mexico border. With 795,000 residents, the district has been a hotly-contested partisan battleground, flipping between Democrats and Republicans four times since 2006.

Hurd, a Republican, took the seat from Democrat Pete Gallego in 2014 and has since held onto it, albeit by smaller and smaller margins.

Hurd announced he would not seek reelection last year and has since thrown his weight behind Gonzales to succeed him. But it was Jones who entered the primary with more name recognition and a bigger cash advantage.

As of Feb. 12, she had more than $2 million in her campaign coffers. Gonzales had about $205,000 and Reyes had $19,000.

Republicans fought hard to keep the seat in 2018. The National Republican Congressional Committee alone spent $2.1 million to head off Jones. All told, campaigns and outside groups pumped more than $20 million into the race.

Jones — a veteran of the war in Iraq who was deployed for three years — would be the first openly gay Texan in Congress if elected.

Gonzales, a retired Navy cryptologist, was deployed multiple times in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was also a Department of Defense legislative fellow for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio city government and politics. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports