Brandon Herrera, a firearms manufacturer and YouTube personality widely known online as “The AK Guy,” has secured the Republican nomination for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District. However, his campaign is drawing intense national scrutiny following a review of his extensive online history, which includes years of derogatory comments about women and jokes involving Nazi-era weapons.
The congressional seat, which covers a vast stretch of southwestern Texas between San Antonio and El Paso, is typically considered a comfortable Republican stronghold, having been carried by Donald Trump by 15 percentage points in 2024.
The race has taken on heightened significance because the district includes Uvalde, the site of the tragic 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting where 19 children and two teachers were killed. Herrera, 30, built an online audience of over 4 million subscribers by producing content centered on gun history, testing, and commentary, particularly focusing on the AK-47 platform.
After moving to the San Antonio area in 2021, Herrera leveraged his digital following to enter electoral politics, centering his platform on conservative principles and an absolute interpretation of the Second Amendment.
A review of hundreds of videos, podcast appearances, and social media posts conducted by CNN has brought Herrera's past statements into the center of the 2026 campaign. Among the findings are numerous sexually explicit and derogatory remarks directed at women, feminists, and gun-safety advocate Shannon Watts. In one video, Herrera described a woman who referred to an AR-15 as an assault rifle as “both fat and wrong.” In another clip, he compared the weight of feminists to that of elephants and killer whales.
He also joked in a video that he was irresistible to "fat b—–s" after rubbing ranch dressing on his body, and used sexually explicit language when discussing Watts and her children. Herrera has previously defended his remarks, asserting they were made as part of his comedic persona.
In addition to his comments about women, Herrera has faced criticism over material involving Nazi Germany. In one video, he referred to the MP40, a Nazi-era submachine gun, as the “original ghetto blaster.” In another video, he was depicted goose-stepping to a Nazi marching song. These actions prompted condemnation from the Republican Jewish Coalition during his unsuccessful 2024 primary campaign.
While Herrera has denied being a neo-Nazi and insisted the videos were comedic, he has remained defiant. In March, addressing the video featuring the Nazi marching song, Herrera stated, "I standby it, this s–t was funny as hell." More recently, on September 9, he reacted to reports about his comments on women's weight by stating, "I forgot I was this funny."
The seat Herrera is running for was previously held by Republican Tony Gonzales, who represented the district from 2021 until his resignation in April. Gonzales resigned amid a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct involving a congressional staffer. The staffer died by suicide in 2025. Text messages shared by the staffer's widower revealed Gonzales had requested a “sexy pic” and made other explicit remarks despite being told he was going too far.
Although Gonzales initially denied the affair, he acknowledged the relationship in March and subsequently ended his reelection campaign and resigned from Congress in April.
The political rivalry between Herrera and Gonzales began during the 2024 Republican primary. Gonzales, viewed as a more moderate Republican, was challenged by Herrera from the right, particularly on gun policy. In the March 2024 primary, Gonzales led with 45.1% of the vote to Herrera's 24.6%, forcing a runoff. The runoff election proved exceptionally tight, with Gonzales securing 15,023 votes (50.6%) to Herrera's 14,669 votes (49.4%)—a narrow margin of just 354 votes. Herrera accepted the outcome and returned to his online platform before launching a second challenge two years later.
In the March 2026 Republican primary, Herrera finished first with 43.3% of the vote, while Gonzales received 41.8%. While the results initially pointed toward another runoff, Gonzales' withdrawal from the race and subsequent resignation cleared the path for Herrera to secure the nomination. Following Gonzales' departure, top Republican leaders who had previously supported Gonzales—including House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, and Republican Whip Tom Emmer—shifted their support to endorse Herrera.
Speaker Johnson subsequently campaigned for Herrera, hosting a fundraiser in San Antonio in July.
During a September interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Speaker Johnson was questioned about Herrera's controversial past statements. Johnson described the remarks as “detestable language” but added, “I also know Brandon Herrera has been out running a very effective campaign and explaining to people that he has apologized for all that." However, there is no public record of Herrera issuing an apology for the comments.
Herrera’s Democratic opponent in the general election is Katy Padilla Stout, a San Antonio attorney and former public school teacher. Padilla Stout previously taught elementary school in the Northside Independent School District before pursuing a legal career. According to the Texas Tribune, she now handles child welfare cases at her family's law firm. In August, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Texas' 23rd Congressional District to its list of targeted House races, signaling the national party's intention to direct financial resources toward contesting the seat.
The district has been represented by Republicans since 2015, when former Representative Will Hurd took office, followed by Gonzales in 2021.
Gun rights remain the cornerstone of Herrera’s political platform. During his 2024 campaign, he heavily criticized Gonzales for voting in favor of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a federal gun-safety measure enacted in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting. According to his campaign website, Herrera pledges to advocate for national concealed carry reciprocity and to block any attempts to implement Red Flag laws or enact new federal firearms restrictions.
Beyond gun policy, Herrera's campaign emphasizes increasing border security, restricting asylum policies, lowering taxes, reducing federal spending and regulatory burdens, expanding healthcare options for military veterans, and limiting the scope of federal government authority.
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Md. Kazi Bijoy is a dedicated tech enthusiast and content creator with a passion for digital innovation. With years of experience in the tech industry, he specializes in breaking down complex topics into easy-to-understand guides. When he isn’t writing, he explores the latest gadgets and researches emerging trends in the digital world.