On March 5, in the election for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, the incumbent Rep. Tony Gonzales was forced into a runoff. Gonzales, whose majority-Hispanic district includes Uvalde, where 19 children and two adults died in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, ceded nearly 25 percent of the vote to an influencer known as the AK Guy.

The 28-year-old, Brandon Herrera, celebrated by posting a video on his YouTube channel.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we got ’em,” he said.

Herrera, a man who makes his living from YouTube, now stands a chance of winning the Republican nomination for the state’s geographically largest district.

Herrera may be at a disadvantage—Gonzales received 45 percent of the vote in the primary, has the support of the Texas governor and the Republican congressional leadership in D.C., and has raised significantly more in fundraising—but he does have the backing of pro-gun figures in an extremely pro-gun state. Rep. Matt Gaetz backs Herrera, as does the Republican Party of Texas, which censured Gonzales over some aisle-crossing votes, including one in favor of expanded background checks and a measure closing the “boyfriend loophole” for gun purchases—choices he made after the Uvalde shooting occurred in his district. And the YouTuber, who boasts 3.4 million subscribers as of this writing and who also sells firearms, has some apparently very committed fans.

It seems that Herrera’s backers hope that the specific kind of edgy comedy that has made him popular with explosives-obsessed young internet users on YouTube will translate into a kind of populist charisma, like a youthful, internet-native version of Trump with a Texas twist. (Despite his everything-is-bigger swagger, Herrera was neither born nor bred in Texas; he moved to the state from North Carolina in 2021 to “escape COVID regulations,” as he told the publication the Texan.)

The 23rd Congressional District includes most of the state’s Mexican border and leans comfortably but not dramatically Republican. Herrera, as one might expect, is running on a gun-rights platform, with a secondary emphasis on hard-line immigration policies. But this matchup is more one of personalities: a Republican making appeals for moderate and reasonable leadership, and a swearing, offensive figure who memed his way through the campaign. On Tuesday, voters will decide if the internet bombast holds real-world appeal.

Herrera’s campaign, to be clear, is not 100 percent online: The candidate claims to have held more than 60 in-person campaign events with voters. He ran TV ads and put out mailers, accusing his opponent of being a RINO. (Gonzales has rejected being characterized as a moderate, asserting that he is solidly conservative.)

And Herrera is not presenting two different personalities: His campaign persona stays true to his internet persona. He shows Vivek Ramaswamy guns. He holds events with Kyle Rittenhouse, who at 17 killed two men at a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was acquitted on charges of homicide in 2021, and has since become a celebrity among very online right-wingers. (“If you believe Kyle did nothing wrong, hit that button and subscribe,” Herrera says in one video.) He wears shirts that read “Make America Texas Again” and has auctioned off a gun for donations. His campaign slogan is “Let’s Go Brandon.” And he has rallied his supporters to boost his campaign by trolling his rival.

“We are actively bullying a sitting congressman,” he proclaims........

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