When this year got underway, Brandon Herrera’s GOP congressional campaign was largely dismissed as an unfortunate joke. He was running against Rep. Tony Gonzales in a Republican primary in Texas and, with the party backing the incumbent, it seemed implausible that Herrera, a radical internet personality, would be a serious candidate for federal office.
In February and March, however, Gonzales’ career imploded in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations. The congressman finished second to Herrera in the first round of balloting in early March, and instead of moving forward to a runoff primary, Gonzales ended his re-election bid and soon after resigned in disgrace.
That left Herrera as the sole Republican candidate in a Republican-friendly congressional district.
GOP leaders who had originally backed Gonzales are now rallying behind the online personality. Take House Speaker Mike Johnson, for example.
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper asked the Louisiana Republican if he was willing to defend Herrera, in light of his record. Congress’ top GOP leader conceded that Herrera had used “detestable language,” but Johnson nevertheless argued that the Texan was “running a very effective campaign and explaining to people that he has apologized for all that.”
He added that the 30-year-old candidate only said outrageous things because he was a “provocateur” who was trying to “get attention.”
Turning to his usual talking points, Johnson concluded, “I’m telling you, this is a contrast election between common sense and crazy. Brandon Herrera will join the commonsense team of Republicans.”
For those unfamiliar with Herrera, a self-described gun rights absolutist known as “the AK Guy,” Politico noted that the candidate had used “sexually explicit and derogatory language to describe mothers and children, called a Nazi-era machine gun the ‘original ghetto blaster’ and was seen goose-stepping to a Nazi marching song.”
When the Democratic House Majority PAC posted the goose-stepping video to social media in March, Herrera replied, “I standby it, this s––– was funny as hell.”
So much for the idea that he has “apologized for all that.”
The New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg added in a recent column:
Because this is a family newspaper, I cannot quote the piquant term that Brandon Herrera, a Republican House candidate in Texas, used to refer to children in a 2023 video. I can only report that he called them “trophies” for getting a man to ejaculate. Nor, alas, am I allowed to repeat the obscenities that Herrera, a gun influencer, used to explain why the opinions of mothers are without value. I can only say that he argued, essentially, that getting pregnant requires no special skill.
Two weeks ago, ahead of a fund-raiser that Mike Johnson, the House speaker, was holding for Herrera, The Austin American-Statesman reached out to Herrera’s campaign about these resurfaced comments. Herrera’s team responded with a crude visual pun that, once again, is too vulgar for me to describe here.
A separate Politico report in the spring also noted that Herrera “jokes about the Holocaust and boasts about his 1939 edition of ‘Mein Kampf.’”
All of which brings us back to the assessment from the sitting House speaker: “I’m telling you, this is a contrast election between common sense and crazy.”
The public is supposed to believe that the guy was seen goose-stepping to a Nazi marching song isn’t the “crazy” one.
Herrera will face Katy Padilla Stout, a local lawyer and former school teacher, in the fall. Watch this space.
The post Why Republican leaders’ support for Texas’ Brandon Herrera is impossible to defend appeared first on MS NOW.
