A Republican in Texas is being questioned about his brag that he’s a millionaire.
In an era where the affordability crisis has reached the top issue voters care about most, online influencer Brandon Herrera has spent his campaign bragging about his riches. The problem, according to The San Antonio Express News, is that the Republican hasn’t got anything to back that up.
The salary of the U.S. House members comes out to about $174,000 and Herrera complained that it would be “a 90+ percent pay cut” for him.
Campaign manager Kimmie Gonzalez, told Punchbowl News at the time that the staff was “working to submit a revised financial disclosure report within the coming weeks.” Then the manager said that it was delayed because Herrera initially had a friend do it but later needed someone with more experience “for this level of reporting.” A D.C. firm was hired.
“The updated report will be out soon. I don’t have a date. I don’t have a timeline, but it will be out soon,” she said.
The report explained, “Democrats see an opportunity to flip the seat” due to Herrera’s extremist past and scores of videos to prove it.
The Express cited law professor Doug Spencer, who focuses specifically on campaign finance regulation, who said that it is rare that a candidate’s previous filings would be questioned once they take office. But when mistakes are made, a new filing is submitted. Herrera’s is unique in that it appears to go beyond “a quick clerical error,” the report said.
“It’s really an error that highlights the very nature of who this candidate is,” Spencer explained. “Is this candidate a truth-teller or not? Is this candidate wealthy or not?”
In the filing, Herrera cited his main source of income as coming from his company, “The AK Guy, Inc.” That company also makes “Kalashnikov-style firearms,” the report explained.
Yet, Herrera said, “Ninety-nine percent of my income comes from other sources.”
Oddly, that included earning “compensation in excess of $5,000 paid by one source” from seven different entities. That includes AdSense, which is the payment for YouTube creators.
His businesses include not only the YouTube and weapons but “his podcast, a streaming service called Pepperbox TV, a merchandise retailer and an energy drink company.”
Herrera has fallen under a lot of controversy after his videos exposed some of his controversial language.
“A self-described gun-rights absolutist and YouTuber known for his inflammatory humor, Mr. Herrera, 30, was initially opposed this year by both Mr. Johnson and President Trump as he challenged the district’s Republican incumbent, Tony Gonzales, for a second straight time,” reported The New York Times’ Bayliss Wagner on Sunday. “Mr. Gonzales and his allies spent millions painting Mr. Herrera as extreme, highlighting old videos in which he made wildly offensive jokes like saying that a Nazi-era submachine gun was ‘the original ghetto blaster’ and ‘Hitler’s street sweeper.’”