Brandon Joseph Herrera (born November 20, 1995), also known as The AK Guy, is an American YouTuber, firearms manufacturer, and politician. He gained prominence through his YouTube channel, launched in 2014, which features firearms testing, historical weapon demonstrations, and commentary on gun policy and politics. Herrera is a member of the Republican Party.
In 2024, Herrera ran to represent Texas's 23rd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, challenging incumbent Tony Gonzales in the Republican primary. He lost by approximately 1 percentage point in a runoff. He ran again for the seat in 2026, forcing a runoff and becoming the presumptive nominee after Gonzales withdrew his candidacy.
Politically, Herrera identifies as libertarian-leaning and is associated with right-wing populist figures, emphasizing gun rights, limited government, and support for President Donald Trump.
Brandon Herrera was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to a family originating from Texas. Both his parents are military veterans. Herrera attended Campbell University, where he studied pre-law, before dropping out to run his firearms manufacturing business.
Started in 2014, Herrera's YouTube channel focuses on testing and reviewing firearms. Subjects of his videos include tests of antique and military weapons, such as the AK-47 and RPG-7; discussions about gun laws and politics; and a series recreating the assassinations of public figures, including John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Lincoln. His videos often feature guests who have served in the military; Herrera himself is not a military veteran.
On October 16, 2022, Herrera collaborated with Kyle Rittenhouse in Rittenhouse's first ever YouTube video after Rittenhouse launched his own channel dedicated to guns and Second Amendment rights.
In 2024, Herrera released a rifle he and his team engineered called the AK-50, an AK-47 pattern rifle chambered in .50 BMG in order to blend the durability and power of the two separately. The gun was later added to the video game Escape from Tarkov and to .
In the aftermath of the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting, an alleged manifesto by the perpetrator referenced Herrera, stating the two had met at SHOT Show. Herrera harshly condemned the shooting and perpetrator, stating that he and his friends who attended SHOT show have "zero recollection of ever meeting this creep." The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the organizers of SHOT show, released a statement in which they detailed there is no record or evidence the shooter ever attended any year of the event.
On March 19, 2024, Herrera spoke outside of the Colorado State Capitol to around 400 people and later testified inside to the Colorado Legislature against a proposed assault weapons ban.
On July 7, 2025, Herrera appeared on Fox News to discuss the impact and effects of the July 2025 Central Texas floods. Herrera has described himself as libertarian-leaning, often emphasizing gun rights and limited government, but has generally aligned himself with right-wing populists such as Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz. He also has appealed to anti-establishment voters in the primaries. Herrera is also a staunch supporter of US President Donald Trump, having worked on the 2016 Trump campaign.
In August 2023, Herrera, a Republican, announced he would run for the U.S. House to represent Texas's 23rd congressional district in 2024, citing a frustration in incumbent Tony Gonzales' votes and gun policy. In the primary, Herrera received 25 percent of the vote, while Gonzales received 45 percent; as no candidate received more than 50 percent, a runoff was held between the two, where Herrera lost by 354 votes. Herrera called for a recount, saying, "I don't expect the results to change, but I feel I owe it to my volunteers, voters, and supporters to leave no stone unturned."
Several political action committees from outside of Texas donated millions of dollars to Gonzales' campaign against Herrera. The pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC ran an ad campaign accusing Herrera of joking about veteran suicide and having "glorified Nazis and mocked the Holocaust" in his YouTube videos. A Politico article cited this ad campaign as an example of AIPAC strategically attacking certain candidates while supporting its endorsed ones, without mentioning Israel. After the primary, U.S. Term Limits, a congressional term limits advocacy group, tapped Herrera to be their Texas chair.
Herrera again announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in Texas' 23rd Congressional district in 2026; During the March 3, 2026, primary, Herrera forced Gonzales into a second runoff, this time coming in first with 43% to Gonzales' 41%. Gonzales suspended his campaign two days after the primary, leaving Herrera the presumptive nominee.
In November 2025, Herrera announced his campaign had raised $1.1 million dollars for the primary, with over 33,000 small dollar donors contributing alongside his own PACs. On February 18, 2026, Herrera called on Gonzales to exit the race and resign over an alleged affair with a former staffer who committed suicide in November after another former Gonzales staffer backed the rumors.
In March of 2026, after an initial primary that prompted a runoff, in which Herrera placed first and Gonzalez second, Gonzalez conceded the race, leading to the cancellation of the runoff and Herrera becoming the presumptive nominee.
Herrera's content often contains self-described dark and politically incorrect humor. He co-hosts the Unsubscribe podcast (with three military veterans) that was described by the Houston Chronicle as displaying "offensive commentary or repeats racist stereotypes", such as an episode where he joked he was essentially a military veteran because he "often [thought] about putting a gun in [his] mouth". Tony Gonzales criticized Herrera, saying that there was a "special place in hell for scum and villainy who mock veteran suicide".
Herrera has posted several YouTube videos that have featured Nazi imagery and included jokes about Nazis and the Holocaust. In a 2020 video, Herrera played "Erika", "Grüne Teufel" (Green Devils), which is a modernized Fallschirmjäger variant of "Teufelslied", and "Panzerlied" (Tank Song), with other Third Reich related songs in the background while covering firearms that were used by the Nazis; Herrera subsequently "liked" numerous comments praising his use of the Nazi marching songs in the video. In a 2022 video, he referred to the MP 40, a submachine gun developed by Nazi Germany, as the "original ghetto blaster". The video includes a montage of Herrera and an associate firing the weapon and "goose stepping" to "Erika". Another video, covering historical weapons in the Rhodesian Bush War, featured the flag of Rhodesia, a symbol used by white nationalists. Herrera responded to criticism, saying, "This should be obvious, but I am not, nor have I ever been a neo-Nazi."
Since 2008, Herrera has also been a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a neo-Confederate organization that promotes the Lost Cause. Brandon Herrera's name is listed as a new member on the 2008 May/Jun issue of Confederate Veteran Magazine and makes multiple appearances in his local chapter's social media site. He appeared in welcome videos produced by the organization, where he referred to the American Civil War varyingly as the "War of Northern Aggression" and the "War for Southern Independence", and advertised the group's "annual Yankee shoot", where members used antique rifles to shoot at "posters of [their] favorite Yankees". Herrera's support for the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization was stated in the videos citing the need to preserve history, "because those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."