Rebecca Creek Distillery has canceled an event featuring U.S. House candidate and gun YouTuber Brandon “AK Guy” Herrera after officials with the whiskey company said they learned it would be a political rally.
The gathering, billed as a “non-political” Second Amendment event hosted by the Texas chapter of Gun Owners of America, was to take place this Friday at Rebecca Creek’s far North Side distilling operation. Country artist Creed Fisher — known for the viral song “The Way That I Am” — was scheduled to perform.
However, in press interviews, distillery officials said they only later learned of the event’s political nature. In addition to it being a Second Amendment rally, Herrera would be present to campaign as the Republican nominee to represent District 23, which stretches from San Antonio to El Paso.
Herrera faces Democrat Katy Padilla Stout in the race, a San Antonio attorney and child-welfare advocate.
Herrera, who has more than 4 million followers on his gun-focused YouTube channel, has drawn public criticism for his “edgelord” online commentary, which has included calling children “cum trophies,” mocking fat people and joking about veteran suicides.
Rebecca Creek announced the cancelation in a Monday Facebook post, stating “at our core, we are committed to delivering performances that reflect our brands and community standards. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
The Current reached out to Rebecca Creek Distillery but didn’t receive a response by press time.
“Apparently, supporting the Second Amendment is just a little too controversial for Rebecca Creek Distillery in San Antonio,” Patriot Talk 920 AM, a conservative radio station based in Houston, posted on Facebook about the event’s cancelation.
Patriot Talk is involved in organizing the San Antonio event. In its post, the station insists the distiller was never kept in the dark that Herrera would be involved.
According to Gun Owners of America, Rebecca Creek Distillery agreed to host the event on Sept. 2.
“Yet days before the concert, they apparently decided to play the virtue signaling card and pretend they had somehow been blindsided by a political rally,” Patriot Talk’s Facebook post continued.
In a statement shared on Facebook, Gun Owners of America said its event organizers toured the premises on a walkthrough Sept. 19. At that time, the distillery’s owners requested that the event’s rhetoric not get political, according to the post.
GOA said it planned to address the distillers’ concerns by keeping political discussion to VIP areas.
However, Rebecca Creek founder Steve Ryan told MySA that he quickly realized that wouldn’t be the case.
“We weren’t expecting it was a political rally,” Ryan said. “It was actually kind of radicalized.”
He added: “I think we were bamboozled on the whole deal.”
In its Facebook statement, GOA maintained that while it invited Herrera and other GOA-endorsed candidates, that didn’t mean the event would transform from a concert to a campaign stop.
“We also strongly disagree with characterizing this event as a ‘political rally,” the group said.
The event, which is still being touted online as a “non-political rally,” has since found a new location, at Texas Pride BBQ in Adkins. Creed Fisher has been replaced as the headliner with another country artist, Chuck Wimer.
“The Second Amendment can’t be cancelled!” the rescheduled event’s poster added.
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