The video begins with Brandon Herrera staring intently into the camera. He is filming himself in a hotel room seated between twin beds, his black hair slicked back and beard neatly trimmed. He is wearing a T-shirt branded with his trademark nickname, \u201cThe AK Guy\u201d, above the image of a semi-automatic rifle primed for action.<\/p>\n
Three days earlier, on 3 August 2019, a white nationalist armed with a semi-automatic firearm not dissimilar to the one stamped across Herrera\u2019s chest entered a busy Walmart store in the Texas border city of El Paso<\/a> and opened fire.<\/p>\n Within minutes the shooter had unloaded about 90 rounds, killing 23 people and injuring 22 more.<\/p>\n With the massacre still dominating headlines, most public figures were limiting themselves to vanilla expressions of \u201cthoughts and prayers\u201d. Not so Herrera.<\/p>\n He opened his video with a warning: what viewers were about to hear might sound \u201ca little harsh\u201d. But, he assured them, it was \u201cdata driven\u201d and came from \u201ca place of empathy\u201d.<\/p>\n Then he said: \u201cWith these terrible mass shootings, you should be really glad that some of these people are using guns to do this \u2026 I think we are fortunate that these people are using guns.\u201d<\/p>\n Had the perpetrator of the El Paso massacre used a truck, or a fertiliser bomb, the death toll might have been much higher, Herrera opined. He then attempted to back up the argument with statistics: the average victim count in mass shootings is 15; the Oklahoma City bombing killed 168.<\/p>\n Such sophistry could not disguise his core argument, however. With the blood barely dry on the Walmart floor, Herrera was urging his viewers to celebrate the choice of weapon used in the carnage \u2013 a military-style AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.<\/p>\n Herrera, 30, has made a name for himself producing such extreme out-of-the-box pro-gun statements. It is what launched him as a prominent \u201cgunfluencer\u201d with 4.27m subscribers to his YouTube channel<\/a>, where his videos have been viewed almost 860m times.<\/p>\n And now, he is the frontrunner in the race to represent the border district of south-west Texas in November\u2019s midterm elections. Texas\u2019s congressional district 23 is being closely watched as potentially decisive in the battle to control the House of Representatives<\/a> through Donald Trump\u2019s final two years in the White House.<\/p>\n A supporter of Brandon Herrera at a campaign event on 25 February 2026 in Uvalde, Texas. Photograph: Brenda Baz\u00e1n for the Washington Post Getty Images<\/p>\n Democrats are hoping that such an extreme candidate, even by Texas\u2019s standards, could be vulnerable at the ballot box. They aim to flip the seat that has been in Republican hands since 2015.<\/p>\n Should he win the midterm election in Texas\u2019s congressional district 23, Herrera will take what he calls his \u201csecond amendment absolutism\u201d to Washington, with possible ramifications for nationwide gun laws and debate.<\/p>\n Locally, the implications are even more poignant. It would mean that a Republican committed to loosening America\u2019s already lax gun laws would become the voice in Congress for those who live in the outskirts of El Paso, the city left devastated by that 2019 Walmart mass shooting.<\/p>\n double quotation markHis idea that somehow we should be grateful that firearms are being used in mass killings is a very cynical ployShannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action<\/p>\n More chillingly still, Herrera would also represent the town of Uvalde where, in May 2022, an 18-year-old former student killed 19 children and two teachers.<\/p>\n Shannon Watts, the founder of the gun safety group Moms Demand Action<\/a>, has been a target of Herrera\u2019s aggressive use of social media. Should he win, she says, there could be long-lasting consequences.<\/p>\n \u201cHis idea that somehow we should be grateful that firearms are being used in mass killings is a very cynical ploy to numb people to gun violence, to make them expect it and even accept it. The more Brandon Herreras we elect to Congress, the more likely that will be our destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n Herrera has been presenting himself on the campaign trail as a Trump-endorsed \u201cAmerica First\u201d Republican. He has promised<\/a> the more than half a million voters scattered across the sprawling, majority-Latino district that he will impose no new taxes, double down on the border crackdown and oppose government funding for abortion.<\/p>\n But it was guns \u2013 and specifically the Uvalde school shooting \u2013 that brought him into politics.<\/p>\n Herrera grew up in a military family in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and dropped out of college to build his own firearms manufacturing business<\/a>, focusing on the growing market for semi-automatic rifles. He spent years developing his own spin on the Soviet Kalashnikov rifle, the AK-47. He scaled up the weapon so that it was capable of taking huge 0.50-caliber cartridges, ammunition developed for Browning heavy machine guns more than a century ago.<\/p>\n He called his invention the AK-50, and began marketing it through his company, The AK Guy Inc. Citing frustrations with state-wide Covid restrictions, Herrera relocated the company to San Antonio, Texas, in 2020.<\/p>\n Two years later, Uvalde became the site of one of the worst school shootings in American history. The massacre lasted 77 minutes, the shooter killing his victims at close range as police held back for more than an hour before they finally broke into the classroom and killed him.<\/p>\n Riding the ensuing wave of revulsion, Joe Biden signed into law<\/a> the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which strengthened background checks for buyers under 21 and tightened restrictions on firearm possession for some domestic-abuse offenders. Eric Ruben, an expert on gun policy at the SMU Dedman school of law in Dallas, Texas, says that Uvalde \u201cjolted Congress into passing its first major piece of gun safety legislation in a quarter of a century\u201d.<\/p>\n A makeshift memorial for the shooting victims outside Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on 27 May 2022. Photograph: Chandan Khanna\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n Herrera had a starkly different response. Furious that Tony Gonzales, the Republican congressman representing Uvalde, had backed Biden\u2019s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Herrera decided to challenge him for his seat.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you vote against our interests, if you vote against gun rights,\u201d he warned Gonzales in 2024, \u201cwe will primary you, and we will take your fucking job.\u201d<\/p>\n He did challenge Gonzales that year, losing to the incumbent narrowly, and was repeating the effort this April when Gonzales abruptly resigned<\/a> from Congress in a sex scandal.<\/p>\n double quotation markJust like we can never turn around and see our daughters again, we\u2019re not going to … walk awayVeronica Mata, founder of Lives Robbed <\/p>\n His departure has cleared the way for Herrera to claim the Republican nomination. He is now free to blast his extreme view of gun rights across Uvalde, across the district, through the state of Texas and, should he be successful, nationwide.<\/p>\n Energised by his vast YouTube following and the large sums it passes his way, Herrera is in a position to weaponise his gun rights absolutism. He has vowed to resolutely oppose any new gun safety laws, including raising the age of ownership of an AR-15-style weapon from 18 to 21 or introducing so-called \u201cred flag\u201d laws that allow courts to temporarily remove firearms from people who pose a threat to themselves or others.<\/p>\n Both measures have been championed by families of Uvalde victims, some of whom have devoted themselves<\/a> to pushing for stricter gun laws in the hope of preventing other mass shootings.<\/p>\n Veronica Mata, a founder of the gun safety group Lives Robbed<\/a> who lost her 10-year-old daughter, Tess, in Uvalde, has put it this way: \u201cJust like we can never turn around and see our daughters again, we\u2019re not going to turn around and walk away.\u201d<\/p>\n To people outside Texas, and beyond America, one of the state\u2019s enduring mysteries is its fierce loyalty to the most extreme form of gun rights, especially in the wake of such human suffering.<\/p>\n There are more than 1m gun licenses<\/a> in Texas \u2013 twice as much as the next state, Florida \u2013 with about half of all households in possession of at least one weapon.<\/p>\n But as Ruben, the law professor, points out, until the 1990s Texas was relatively restrictive in its gun laws. In 1995, George W Bush, then governor, signed a law allowing licensed Texans to carry concealed handguns in public. He said it would make Texas a \u201csafer place\u201d, an argument that meshed well with the state\u2019s culture of rugged individualism.<\/p>\n Herrera\u2019s position echoes that logic: he has argued that the way to protect children is to hire more armed security officers and turn schools into \u201chard targets\u201d.<\/p>\n Since then, Texas\u2019s policies have taken a pro-gun turn in lock step with the tightening grip of an increasingly hard-right Republican party. \u201cTexas has largely tracked the broader effort of the gun rights movement to relax policies on firearms,\u201d Ruben said.<\/p>\n And yet, Texans are not universally wedded to the idea of firearms supremacy. A 2025 opinion survey<\/a> by the Hobby school of public affairs at the University of Houston found that 85% of Texans support raising the age of buying an AR-15-style rifle from 18 to 21. The reform is especially relevant to Uvalde, given that the shooter legally bought two AR-style rifles with 30-round magazines just days after his 18th birthday.<\/p>\n The same survey showed a clear majority of Texans wanting firmer background checks on gun buyers, a ban on all AR-15 style rifles, and supporting red flag laws.<\/p>\n After the El Paso mass shooting, Republican lawmakers introduced permitless carry, allowing anyone to pack a concealed, loaded handgun in public without a licence or training. It was the polar opposite of the gun safety measures they had promised immediately after the massacre.<\/p>\n Gun control advocates hold signs during a protest at Discovery Green across from the National Rifle Association annual meeting at the George R Brown convention center, on 27 May 2022 in Houston, Texas. Photograph: Eric Thayer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The law was the end result of an intense lobbying campaign<\/a> from hard-right gun activists. When he signed permitless carry into law in June 2021, the Republican governor Greg Abbott did not refer to the El Paso shooting. Rather, he presented<\/a> it as a defiant act to stop the federal government taking Texans\u2019 guns, arguing that arming yourself was a form of self-defense \u201cagainst attacks by others\u201d.<\/p>\n Herrera wants a similar law to be imposed across the country. He wants what he calls \u201cconcealed carry reciprocity\u201d. It would override regulations in states that take a more stringent approach to gun safety.<\/p>\n Watts, the Moms Demand Action<\/a> founder, described the end result Herrera is seeking: \u201cHis goal is that if you can carry a gun in Texas, no questions asked, then you should be able to carry that firearm down into the New York City subway.\u201d<\/p>\n Shannon Watts had already experienced Herrera\u2019s particular style of political combat first-hand. He unloaded a stream of obscene invective<\/a> at her on X in January 2023.<\/p>\n Speaking directly to her in a video posted on the platform, he ridiculed the group she had founded. Rather than debate her on gun policy, he opted for vulgar phrases drawn from the pornography industry.<\/p>\n \u201cJust because you let somebody creampie you doesn\u2019t mean I have to give a shit about your political opinions,\u201d he said. Referring to her role as a mother and an activist, he continued: \u201cThe fact that you kept your cum trophy doesn\u2019t make you any less wrong about the dumb shit that you say.\u201d<\/p>\n Watts told the Guardian that she was unsurprised by his virulent attack, as she has been frequently assailed over the years by male gun rights activists.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has always been about misogyny. How dare a woman and a mother use her voice. That strikes at the heart of every gun extremist, that women could take away their manhood.\u201d<\/p>\n Herrera\u2019s ascent and its impact on the gun discourse bears comparison to what Trump has done to the Republican establishment. Herrera and other \u201cguntubers\u201d have filled the void left by the self-implosion of the once almost monopolistic National Rifle Association (NRA), the gun rights group that held an iron grip on Republican politicians and used that power to resist public safety measures.<\/p>\n Over the past few years, the NRA has been badly weakened by financial scandals and internal disputes. Into that vacuum has stepped a plethora of even harder-line gun-rights groups and social media influencers: louder, more brazen and pushing at the boundaries of a second-amendment free-for-all.<\/p>\n Brandon Herrera, a Republican congressional candidate for Texas\u2019s 23rd district, speaks during an event, on 26 Febuary 2026 in Somerset, Texas. Photograph: Brenda Baza\u0301n\/AP<\/p>\n The Guardian repeatedly asked the Herrera campaign whether the candidate would explain his policy stance in an interview, but received no reply. We followed up with a list of detailed questions about his past comments and current positions, including his reductivist view of a child as a \u201ccum trophy\u201d, but that also went unanswered.<\/p>\n He did agree to talk to the New York Times<\/a> recently, swatting away criticism of the base language he uses on the videos and in social media posts by presenting it as a \u201ccomedy performance\u201d.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the company that Herrera keeps. He has been endorsed<\/a> by Kyle Rittenhouse, the gun rights activist who, then 17, shot dead two men and injured another amid 2020 street protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (He was later acquitted of homicide.)<\/p>\n Days after the Kenosha incident, Herrera had made another of his \u201cjokes\u201d on video \u2013 this time about the death of Rittenhouse\u2019s victims.<\/p>\n \u201cGood luck, kid. You minted some good commies,\u201d he said, <\/a>adding that he was not encouraging anybody to go \u201cget themselves into some shit \u2026 it\u2019s not worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n The duo have now campaigned together<\/a> and fired a machine gun<\/a> in unison out of a helicopter.<\/p>\n But sometimes, even some of his followers recoil from the \u201cedgy\u201d humour. One of the remarks that has drawn the strongest condemnation came on the Unsubscribe podcast, when he said he often thought about \u201cputting a gun in my mouth, so I\u2019m basically an honorary veteran\u201d.<\/p>\n In 2023, the latest year for which records are available<\/a>, 4,690 US military veterans died by suicide using a gun. In 2025, more than 28,000 people in the wider US population died by firearm suicide<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another disturbing \u201cjoke\u201d he has made relate to the Nazis and the Holocaust. In a 2022 video<\/a> viewed 2.3m times, he calls the MP 40, the submachine gun used by the Germans in the second world war, \u201cthe original ghetto blaster\u201d. Later in the video, he and an associate goosestep to the sound of Ericka, the military marching song adopted by the Waffen SS.<\/p>\n Brandon Herrera pins on display during a campaign rally at the Constantino S Pizza restaurant on 26 February 2026 in Somerset, Texas. Photograph: Brandon Bell\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The Nazi references were not the only evidence of Herrera\u2019s flirtation with far-right historical imagery. The news outlet Jewish Insider uncovered private videos<\/a> produced by a younger Herrera in North Carolina on behalf of the Fayetteville chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.<\/p>\n The group has promoted the \u201cLost Cause\u201d narrative which reframes the civil war as a struggle over states\u2019 rights rather than slavery. Herrera described SCV as an \u201chistorical honor society dedicated to preserving confederate heritage\u201d, without mentioning its longstanding links<\/a> with white supremacist groups. His involvement with neo-Confederacy activity continued until at least 2019, the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n Such an unsettling back catalogue has provoked objections to his candidacy even from within Texas conservative circles. Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican strategist based in Austin, challenged Herrera by saying there should be zero tolerance for making light about Nazi Germany. \u201cI don\u2019t think the Holocaust is something we should be joking about,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we should be singing the song of the stormtroopers.\u201d<\/p>\n Steinhauser told the Guardian that anything perceived as antisemitic was likely to play negatively with Texas Republicans<\/a> and independent voters, both of whom tend to be strongly pro-Israel.<\/p>\n True to form, Herrera lashed back at Steinhauser, posting on social media<\/a>: \u201cWhen did conservatives become pearl clutching virtue signalers?\u201d<\/p>\n Could this toxic screed prove to be Herrera\u2019s political undoing?Nationally, the Democratic party has begun to wake up to the possibilities.<\/p>\n double quotation markSo many children in Uvalde were affected by the shooting. When people hear the way he describes children, their jaws are on the floorKaty Padilla Stout<\/p>\n In August, the Democratic congressional campaign committee added Texas 23<\/a> to its target list, denoting a shift in strategy from previous assumptions that the district was irredeemably Republican.<\/p>\n Opinion polls have been few and far between, and those that have been conducted came from partisan sources. A survey back in March was carried out by the House Majority Pac<\/a> sponsored by the Democratic party. It put Herrera\u2019s Democratic rival, Katy Padilla Stout, two points up. A poll conducted from the other side of the aisle last month put Herrera ahead by six points. That came from the Remington research group<\/a>, on behalf of the rightwing website Breitbart.<\/p>\n On the ground, his opponent Padilla Stout sees his most egregious outbursts as a turn-off for many voters, especially his depiction of children in the wake of the Uvalde massacre at Robb elementary school.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many children in Uvalde were affected by the shooting. When people hear the way he describes children, their jaws are on the floor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Katy Padilla Stout, right, holds a \u2018Save Big Bend\u2019 community update at a Denny\u2019s restaurant in San Antonio, Texas, on 11 September 2026. Photograph: Bill Clark\/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images<\/p>\n And yet, Padilla Stout has a palatability problem. How do you talk about \u201ccreampies\u201d and \u201ccum trophies\u201d without offending voters anew?<\/p>\n \u201cAs a mother myself, that\u2019s a hard thing for me to put on thousands of doors.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas 23 is a deeply rural and relatively sparsely populated district that has hunting and shooting in its DNA. Padilla Stout herself grew up within that culture.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad bought a ranch shortly before I was born, it was part of his American dream,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that aspect of gun culture, the hunting and ranching part, I\u2019ve been part of it all my life. I have cousins who would get their first shotgun on their 12th birthday, that\u2019s our family tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n Given the prevalence of guns in the local way of life, she hasn\u2019t made Herrera\u2019s gun rights policy front and centre of her campaign. Voters, she said, rarely raise it.<\/p>\n