Brandon Herrera

Brandon Herrera is the Republican nominee for Texas's open 23rd District along the border. He describes himself as an entrepreneur, Second Amendment activist and social media personality who started a firearms manufacturing business and built a large YouTube following. He narrowly lost the 2024 Republican primary runoff to Rep. Tony Gonzales and became the 2026 nominee after Gonzales withdrew from the runoff.[1][2][3]

According to his campaign website, Herrera has deep Texas family roots and Hispanic heritage, and both of his parents come from military families. He attended Campbell College, where he studied pre-law, before leaving to start a firearms manufacturing business.[2][1] His campaign website says he moved to Texas for good after the 2020 COVID lockdowns and brought his businesses and employees with him. The San Antonio Report describes him as the owner of a small firearms manufacturing company near San Antonio who is known on YouTube as The AK Guy.[2][4] As of the 2024 election he hosted a YouTube channel focused on firearms-related content with more than 3 million subscribers, and his campaign website says his content has accumulated over half a billion views. The site says he works with groups including the National Association for Gun Rights, the Firearm Policy Coalition, Gun Owners of America and Young Americans for Liberty.[1][2]

Herrera challenged incumbent Tony Gonzales in the 2024 Republican primary for this district and advanced to a runoff, which Gonzales won on May 28, 2024, 50.6% to 49.4%.[1] In the March 3, 2026 Republican primary he finished first with 43.3% to Gonzales's 41.8%. Gonzales withdrew before the May 26 runoff, which was canceled, making Herrera the nominee.[1][3][4]

Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.