Brandon Herrera holds an AK-47 he auctioned off to raise funds for his failed congressional campaign. Credit: X / @TheAKGuy
Second Amendment advocate and YouTube vlogger-turned-congressional candidate Brandon Herrera this week unveiled a fundraising effort that was, well, certainly on-brand.

To play campaign cash catch-up in his runoff for the Republican nomination to represent Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, Herrera — known to followers as the “AK Guy” — announced he’s raffling off an AK-47-adjacent rifle to donors. Incumbent rival U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales has considerably outraised Herrera, a political novice, according to data released this week.

Herrera announced the promotion Thursday in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“This sweet beauty right here is a Romanian RPK hand built by us here at my shop in San Antonio,” he tweeted. “And we’re giving it away.”

For reference, the RPK functions identically to the AK-47 and was designed by the same person, Mikhail Kalashnikov. The key difference is that the RPK has modifications to increase range and accuracy, according to details available online.

According to Herrera’s tweet, every person who donates $5 to his campaign receives a single entry to win the gun. A donation of $100 earns 20 chances, while a $500 donation gives 100, and so on.

Herrera’s post comes days after reports that Gonzales raised $3.7 million this election cycle — far more than Herrera’s $1.2 million.

Despite being censured by the Texas GOP last year over his bipartisan voting record, Gonzales has still received support from some powerful members of the Republican establishment and from large corporate donors.

Meanwhile, Herrera has taken flak for recent comments poking fun at veteran suicides and mocking the appearance of Donald Trump’s youngest son. More recently, an old YouTube clip surfaced that shows Herrera cracking Holocaust jokes and marching to a World War II-era German song during a review of a weapon used by Nazi soldiers.

The runoff election for Herrera and Gonzales will take place May 28.

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This article appears in Apr 17-30, 2024.

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,...