Sign up for the We the Texans newsletter to receive twice-monthly updates on our year-long initiative dedicated to boosting civic engagement and chronicling how democracy is experienced in Texas. WASHINGTON — The South Texas man at the center of a new ad attacking U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez is a self proclaimed “conspiracy theorist” who has spread theories on social media about 9/11 and the COVID pandemic and mocked both Michelle Obama and a Republican congressman.