Brandon Herrera, the GOP nominee for Texas’ 23rd congressional district, is having a particularly rough week. And honestly, it’s hard to feel too sympathetic when the controversy involves him proudly showing off his personal copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf on camera.
The firearms manufacturer and YouTuber, known online as “The AK Guy,” became the de facto Republican nominee after incumbent Tony Gonzales abandoned his reelection bid following a sex scandal. Gonzales had actually called Herrera a “known neo-Nazi” before dropping out, which at the time felt like standard political mudslinging. Now? The comment is looking prescient.
The Nazi Memorabilia Defense
In a video that surfaced Friday, Herrera casually mentioned his prized possession while discussing censorship. “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,” he explained, apparently believing this was a clever gotcha about double standards.
He kept the book next to German stick grenades, because apparently that’s how one organizes a “historic book collection.” The whole thing had the vibe of someone who thinks owning controversial items is a personality trait.
But wait, there’s more.
Another clip emerged showing Herrera goose-stepping to “Erika,” the infamous Nazi marching song. When the backlash predictably followed, he doubled down. “I standby it, this shit was funny as hell,” he commented on social media. Not exactly the response of someone worried about optics.
The “It’s Just Humor” Excuse
When Hearst Newspapers reached out for comment, Herrera insisted he’s being misunderstood. He claimed the whole thing was context-clipped humor and that he doesn’t actually hold antisemitic views. The Mein Kampf? Just part of his collection, sitting right there with his Communist manifestos. He “doesn’t agree with either book,” he said.
The logic here is genuinely baffling. Owning a 1939 edition of Mein Kampf specifically because Amazon restricts it, then proudly showing it off on camera while discussing censorship, isn’t exactly the same as keeping a historical text for scholarly purposes. There’s a reason most people don’t flex their Nazi memorabilia on YouTube.
What This Says About Politics Right Now
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Herrera probably calculated that within his voter base, this wouldn’t be a dealbreaker. Maybe he even thought it would win him points with a particular segment of the GOP base. That’s the real story here, not just Herrera’s questionable taste in decorative items.
The fact that someone can goose-step to Nazi marching songs, brag about owning Hitler’s autobiography, and still somehow become a major party’s congressional nominee says something deeply troubling about where we are. Sure, he’s being criticized. But he’s still the nominee. He’s still running. People are still considering voting for him.
His argument that this is all just “humor clipped out of context” falls apart when you consider the full context actually makes it worse, not better. There’s no version of events where this looks good.
When Tony Gonzales called Herrera a neo-Nazi before abandoning his own seat due to an affair and subsequent death, it might have been political theater. But sometimes people turn out to be right about things for the wrong reasons.
The question voters in Texas’ 23rd district need to ask themselves isn’t whether Herrera is “just joking.” It’s whether they’re comfortable with a congressional representative who thinks this material is worth publicly defending at all.
