A 17-year-old from McKinney is accused of plotting to assassinate North Texas Congressman Keith Self, confirmed to NBC 5 by Self's campaign officials.

This comes as the Republican lawmaker is currently running for his third term representing Texas' third congressional district.

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More details were confirmed to NBC 5 by Rep. Self, who says it became serious enough that he increased his awareness and security as early voting continues across the state.

Self's campaign manager said the teen was arrested by the FBI on Oct. 5 and that the congressman's team learned of the arrest through U.S. Capitol Police on Oct. 6.


His campaign said they were informed that investigators believed the teen had been radicalized and was being monitored by federal agents. They were told the teen had also been planning a terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS and was planning on targeting Self at a chili cook-off fundraiser for veterans scheduled on Oct. 17 involving former Cowboys players and several high-profile guests.

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NBC 5 has reached out directly to the FBI Dallas office for more information and is still waiting to hear back.

Self said his team responded to the threats by becoming more vigilant.

 So at that point we upped our profile and we're a little more aware, although I had plenty of security,  he said.  So we did change our situational awareness around us. 

The congressman told NBC 5 his previous military experience helped shape how he responded to the news.

 Having deployed into combat zones several times, I'm happy it happened to me because people that have never dealt with this before tend to freak out when somebody tells you that somebody's trying to kill you,  Self said.  But in my case, it was a little more calm. I understood since the arrest had already taken place, we just needed to be aware of was he a lone wolf or not. So, we took that seriously. But it was not as a traumatic for me as it might have been for some of my colleagues. 

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