Republican Uvalde candidate seen in resurfaced video calling Nazi rifle ‘original ghetto blaster’

YouTuber Brandon Herrera appeared in a video calling a German World War II-era submachine gun the “original ghetto blaster”.

The 28-year-old is running as a Republican against the only member of the Texas GOP House delegation to vote for the bipartisan gun safety legislation which passed after the Uvalde school shooting – Rep Tony Gonzales. Uvalde is part of the district represented by Mr Gonzales.

In 2022, 19 children anf two staff members were killed in the shooting atRobb Elementary School.

Mr Herrera is known on YouTube, where he has millions of subscribers, as “the AK guy” – he’s now in a runoff race against Mr Gonzales set for 28 May. After winning his 2022 primary with 78 per cent of the vote, Mr Gonzales failed to get a majority in the 5 March primary, netting 45 per cent.

Mr Gonzales was censured by the Texas Republican Party last year for positions considered too moderate. Other primary challengers are now backing Mr Herrera to oust him.

In the 2022 video on the MP-40, the song Erika, used by the Nazis as a marching tune, was played during a montage skit, in which Mr Herrera can be seen stopping a friend from doing a Hitler salute, pointing to the camera.

Pre-empting criticism, Mr Herrera says in the video: “If you’re one of the few people out there that realize there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the song we just used, and it’s just a bunch of soldiers singing about a pretty girl they miss at home, go ahead and hit the subscribe button.”

Mr Herrera began the video by saying, “Today we are out here on the range with an iconic historic submachine gun, a gun that as the kids say is a whole a** vibe. This if you can't tell is the MP-40 – The original ghetto blaster. If the MG-42 was Hitler's buzzsaw, the