Herrera Faces Another Hit Piece Over His Online Comments

We still haven’t seen any recent polling out of TX-23, but the prediction markets still favor Brandon Herrera to win the district over his Democrat opponent this November. Democrats, though, have added TX-23 to their “Districts in Play,” and are publicly optimistic (if not particularly confident) about flipping the seat on Election Day. 

That’s not because Katy Padilla Stout, the Democrat nominee, is performing well on the campaign trail or proving to be a fundraising powerhouse. In fact, when the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee sent out a press release proclaiming that TX-23 is in play, the group never even mentioned Padilla Stout. Instead, the DCCC is entirely focused on portraying Brandon Herrera as a woman-hating neo-Nazi who’ll put machine guns in the hands of toddlers, and they’re getting a lot of help from their allies in the media like the New York Times and CNN.

The latter unveiled their hit piece on Herrera earlier today, with Herrera’s comments and commentary as a YouTube star taking center stage.

Herrera downplayed his controversial comments, which he made as a right-wing online personality known as “The AK Guy,” by describing them as jokes.

But the remarks surfaced by CNN underscore the uncomfortable position top Republican leaders face as they embrace Herrera in a district where the incumbent GOP congressman resigned over sexual misconduct allegations – and where Herrera’s Democratic opponent is a woman.

In the videos and other material reviewed by CNN, Herrera compared feminists’ weight to whales and nuclear bombs, joked that he was irresistible to “fat b*tches” after rubbing ranch dressing on his body, and described liberal women discussing guns as “both fat and wrong.” He also lobbed sexually explicit insults at a gun safety advocate and her children.

Herrera’s online performances aren’t for everyone, but that’s exactly what they are: performances. Herrera’s an entertainer, and he’s rightfully described his edgy material as jokes. To his critics, though, his comments are no laughing matter. 

Beyond the political consequences, one expert in online speech who reviewed CNN’s findings described Herrera’s statements as representative of Internet misogyny and said such content can result in real-world damage.

“I think if we want a safer society overall, we should also be worried about candidates like this who help normalize things that we know are reliable predictors of political violence,” said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, who oversees the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University. Miller pointed to research her lab has done suggesting that spreading misogynistic statements can fuel extremists willing to commit real-life violence.

Notice that Miller-Idriss isn’t accusing Herrera of saying anything that’s actually supportive of political or “real-life violence.” What she’s suggesting is that Herrera’s jokes might spur someone to commit an act of violence, and though she “pointed to research” CNN failed to include a link to that research so that its audience could judge for themselves how much weight (no pun intended) to give Miller-Idriss and her claims. 

Miller-Idriss is particularly upset that Herrera’s compared “feminists” to “killer whales” and “elephants,” telling CNN that it’s a way to “put women in their place, to diminish their power, their authority, to belittle or degrade,” and added “If you’re referred to as an animal, you’re not actually even fully human, right?”

Honestly, I like most animals more than I like most people, so I don’t really see that as a negative. 

For his part, Herrera’s been up front and honest about the years of material that Democrats are poring over, but argues that voters in TX-23 care more about the issues that are impacting their lives than off-color jokes or cracks about overweight blue-haired feminists. 

So far, that strategy appears to be working. At the moment, Herrera is still favored to win TX-23, which is an R+15 district according to Cook Political Report. The website VoteHub, however, predicts the race will be pretty close, with Herrera winning by about 4 points. We can expect a ton of attack ads aimed at Herrera between now and November, with Democrats spending most of their time and money going after him rather than promoting their candidate. Herrera still enjoys a sizable lead in campaign donations as well, but the gun control lobby has plenty to spend if anti-gun groups truly think Padilla Stout can pull off an upset. 

My advice to Second Amendment supporters who want to see Herrera in Congress remains unchanged: don’t take his victory for granted, and help out his campaign however you can, whether through donations or grassroots activism. 

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

Help us continue to report on and expose the Democrats’ gun-grabbing schemes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.