Trump-Endorsed Texas Candidate Brandon Herrera Faces Scrutiny Over Confederate Recruitment Video

A newly resurfaced video of Brandon Herrera, the Republican congressional candidate in Texas‘ 23rd District who was endorsed this week by President Donald Trump, is drawing renewed scrutiny after footage showed him wearing Confederate imagery and promoting the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that has long defended Confederate memory and symbols.

Herrera, known online as “The AK Guy,” secured a major boost on March 11 when Trump endorsed him after Rep. Tony Gonzales exited the race, effectively clearing Herrera’s path as the Republican nominee in the border district. The endorsement elevated Herrera’s profile nationally, but it also reopened examination of his earlier online videos and public associations, many of which had already surfaced during his 2024 challenge to Gonzales.

The newly circulated clip appears to stem from Herrera’s ties to a North Carolina chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. While the substance of Herrera’s association with the group was reported in 2024, his ties to Sons of Confederate Veterans were the subject of new scrutiny after Trump’s endorsement.

According to Jewish Insider, Herrera was a member of a North Carolina chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans as recently as 2019. In a promotional video for the organization, he referred to the Civil War as the “War of Northern Aggression” and promoted the group’s “annual Yankee shoot.”

The clip appears to be a recruitment-style video from Herrera’s younger years in North Carolina. In clips now being widely shared on social media, Herrera introduces himself as part of the Fayetteville Arsenal Camp and welcomes viewers to the SCV, using the organization’s formal name, Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The resurfaced Confederate-themed footage lands on top of earlier controversy over Herrera’s other videos. Jewish Insider also detailed videos in which Herrera used Nazi imagery and Holocaust jokes while reviewing a German MP-40 submachine gun.

More recently, People reported that Democrats circulated additional clips showing Herrera discussing owning an English-language copy of Mein Kampf and defending earlier Nazi-themed content as satire. Herrera has said publicly that he was mocking Nazis, not praising them.

Those clips, along with the Confederate-related footage, are likely to give Democrats more ammunition as they seek to define Herrera beyond his gun-rights brand and YouTube following. Herrera’s provocative public persona, built around firearms and anti-establishment conservatism, likely helped him develop a loyal following and nearly topple Gonzales before ultimately inheriting the nomination.

But in a competitive and politically symbolic district stretching across a large section of the Texas-Mexico border, the reappearance of Confederate-linked material could complicate efforts to broaden his appeal beyond the Republican base. Herrera will face Democrat Katy Padilla-Stout in the general election.