Before he was a congressional candidate, Brandon Herrera was a YouTuber known as "The AK Guy," famous for firing antique machine guns and building his own custom rifles.
Herrera grew up in a military family (though he never served himself), dropped out of Campbell University's pre-law program, and built a firearms company and YouTube channel into a business with over a million subscribers. He first ran for Texas's 23rd District in 2024 and narrowly lost the Republican runoff to incumbent Tony Gonzales; when Gonzales dropped out of the 2026 race, Herrera became the Republican nominee.
Herrera’s take on Texas values
Herrera supports school-choice policies where taxpayer education dollars follow the student to private or parochial schools, and defends homeschooling rights — the opposite of the public-school-funding position in these statements. [Brandon Herrera for Congress campaign site]