Gun influencer-turned-congressional candidate Brandon “AK Guy” Herrera speaks at an event. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore

Brandon Herrera, a Republican running for a San Antonio U.S. House district, pulled out of a live interview on Texas Public Radio on Monday, leaving host David Martin Davies high and dry.

In a clip tweeted out moments before the Davies’ radio show The Source was set to begin, the host informed listeners that Herrera’s campaign manager said the candidate was unavailable due to a scheduling conflict.

The last-minute cancelation comes just three days after media outlets including MeidasTouch News and Courier Texas reported on an old clip of Herrera, a YouTube gun influencer known to fans as the “AK Guy,” promoting a Confederate heritage group.

“His campaign manager said something came up and they had to drop out,” Davies said in his online announcement about the cancelation. “We will try to reschedule and see if they will work with us on that.”

Herrera’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to the Current’s request for comment about the withdrawal.

In the resurfaced promotional clip that began circling over the weekend, a young Herrera talks up the Confederate heritage group Fayetteville Arsenal Camp 168, a chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a hereditary group set up to honor Confederate soldiers and preserve Confederate memorials.

“Once a year, we actually have what we call our ‘Annual Yankee Shoot,’ where we go out back with black powder rifles — some that were actually in the war — and we go out and shoot up posters of our favorite Yankees,” Herrera, who’s wearing a white polo shirt emblazoned with an emblem of the Confederate battle flag, says in the decades-old clip.

Democrat Katy Padilla Stout, an attorney and former school teacher running against Herrera to represent Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, slammed her rival on social media over the video. She and Herrera are vying to represent a district that includes a western part of San Antonio and a long stretch of the Texas-Mexico border.

“Honoring those who fought to preserve slavery is just another example of why Brandon Herrera has no business in the U.S. Congress,” Stout tweeted. “These are not the values of the people of TX23.”

As of press time, Stout was slated to join Davies on TPR’s The Source Tuesday at 12:30 p.m.

The reappearance of the Herrera’s Fayetteville Arsenal Camp 168 is only the latest controversy for the Trump-endorsed candidate, who landed GOP nomination for TX23 after incumbent U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales dropped out due to a scandal involving the fiery death of a former staffer with whom he had an affair.

During his first run against Gonzalez in 2024, Herrera came under scrutiny for content on his YouTube show, which included joking about veteran suicides and mocking the appearance of Trump’s teenage son. During one episode, he marched to a Nazi propaganda song and joked that a submachine gun used by Nazi soldiers was the original “ghetto blaster.”

More recently, a clip of Herrera bragging about his 1939 English edition copy of Mein Kampf made the rounds online. However, he later told the New York Times he doesn’t share Hitler’s views.

Sign Up for SA Current newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

​

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...