Texas’ 23rd Congressional District wasn’t supposed to be competitive this year. Stretching over 800 miles of border country from San Antonio to El Paso, the district voted for Trump by 15 points in 2024. Then, in March, Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales dropped his reelection bid after admitting to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide. The seat reopened overnight—and the man who stepped into it wasn’t a typical GOP successor.
Brandon Herrera, 30, built his political career from a YouTube channel. Known online as “The AK Guy,” he runs a small firearms manufacturing business near San Antonio and has amassed over four million subscribers reviewing guns and railing against gun control measures—including ones his own party has supported.
He first challenged Gonzales in 2024, motivated largely by Gonzales’ vote for gun safety legislation passed after the Uvalde school shooting, and came within 400 votes of winning the primary outright. He ran again in 2026 and was positioned to force another runoff—until Gonzales exited the race entirely. Trump endorsed Herrera within days, and House Freedom Caucus-aligned leadership followed.
Herrera’s YouTube persona hasn’t stayed offline. In a 2024 podcast appearance, he joked, “I often think about putting a gun in my mouth, so I’m basically an honorary veteran,” drawing condemnation from a border sheriff who called it a mockery of an actual crisis, and from Gonzales himself, who wrote there was “a special place in hell” for people who joke about veteran suicide.
In video content resurfaced during this year’s campaign, Herrera has referred to a Nazi-era submachine gun as the “original ghetto blaster,” discussed owning a copy of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” and recreated the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on camera, firing at a target dummy while reviewing the type of rifle used by James Earl Ray. He has also claimed Abraham Lincoln “didn’t free anybody,” and, most recently, a resurfaced clip showed Herrera dismissing mothers’ political opinions in vulgar terms.
Criticism of Herrera’s remarks hasn’t come only from Democrats. Texas’ border czar, Mike Banks, called the veteran suicide joke “sickening” on social media. Gun violence prevention group GIFFORDS Texas, which typically targets Republican gun policy generally, singled Herrera out by name: “No one who makes their money imitating Nazis and mocking dead veterans deserves a seat in Congress. Period,” a spokesperson said.
Slate described him as “more style than substance,” noting he campaigned alongside Kyle Rittenhouse and built his candidacy on internet-native “bullying” of the incumbent he ultimately replaced on the ballot. The New York Times has called him one of the most controversial candidates running for federal office this cycle, noting House Republican leadership has continued to back him despite the controversies.
The controversies aren’t limited to old video clips. In May, government watchdog group Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) accusing Herrera’s campaign of funneling $2.7 million in contributions through a shell company to avoid disclosing how the money was actually spent. Federal filings show 99.4% of Herrera’s 2026 campaign expenditures went to an entity called Texas Strategy Group, which isn’t registered to do business anywhere in the country and has no public website, according to the complaint.
During Herrera’s 2024 run, 92% of his spending went to the same entity.
“This is egregious in the sense that there’s no real effort to cover up what’s happening,” Campaign Legal Center’s Saurav Ghosh told the San Antonio Current. “We’ve seen some other examples of this, but this one is at the far end of the spectrum.”
The complaint alleges the arrangement violates federal law requiring campaigns to disclose their actual vendors. The FEC—put “on ice” by Trump—has lacked a voting quorum for months, so it’s unclear when, or if, regulators will act.
Democrats have taken notice of Herrera’s controversies. The DCCC added TX-23 to its target list on Aug. 5—the third red-leaning, Hispanic-majority Texas House seat to draw national Democratic investment this cycle. A district that hasn’t been competitive in years is suddenly in play.
Herrera’s opponent Katy Padilla Stout is a San Antonio attorney, former public school teacher, and longtime child welfare advocate who won her primary with 52% of the vote. She has served on the Bexar County Child Welfare Board since 2017 and has adopted two children of her own through foster care. Her campaign centers on affordability, healthcare access, universal pre-K and student loan reform, and she’s earned endorsements from EMILY’s List and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ BOLD PAC.
She also faces a steep financial disadvantage against Herrera’s national fundraising network—a gap that, along with the district’s Republican lean, still makes her the underdog in a race that now has national eyes on it.
