A Texas GOP candidate has drawn scrutiny after video surfaced of him happily boasting about having a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Brandon Herrera is the GOP nominee for Texas’ 23rd congressional district after incumbent Tony Gonzales dropped out of his reelection bid following a sex scandal over which MAGA lawmakers called for his resignation. A subsequent ethics investigation ensued after reports surfaced that he had an affair with someone on his staff who later died by suicide.
Meanwhile, Herrera has become the district’s de facto GOP nominee in the wake of departure of Gonzales — who in 2024 called Herrera a “known neo-Nazi” — from the race. (Herrera denied the accusation, saying on X at the time, “This should be obvious, but I am not, nor have I never been a neo-Nazi.”) The firearms manufacturer and YouTuber, who’s known on the internet at “The AK Guy,” went viral on Friday after a video surfaced where he is seen boasting about his copy of Mein Kampf.
“That’s my copy at my house next to a bunch of the German stick grenades,” Herrera said in the clip. In the video, he appears to pull up a photo of it on his phone to show one of the hosts. “I got the 1939 edition printed in English, just because I thought it was wild that you couldn’t buy it on Amazon, but you could buy The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital.” (Hitler’s hateful, antisemitic book appears to be available on Amazon).
It’s not the only time he’s proudly showcased neo-Nazi behavior. In another clip shared on social media by House Majority Pac on Thursday, Herrera is seen goose-stepping to the Nazi marching song “Erika.” On Friday, Herrera doubled down on his stance. “I standby it, this shit was funny as hell,” he commented in response to the posted video.
Despite the disturbing circulating clips and mounting accusations of him being racist, Herrera denied to Hearst Newspapers that he is antisemitic. He also said he found the backlash about the Mein Kampf clip “hilarious.”
“I bought a copy for my historic book collection, and I keep it right next to my copy of the Communist manifesto,” he wrote in a text message to Hearst. “I uh, don’t agree with either book.”
He added, “If my opponents continue to purposely pretend to not know the difference between humor and jokes clipped out of context, and my actual beliefs, it’s going to be an annoying few months.”
