A resurfaced podcast appearance has thrust the top Democrat in the Texas House into a fresh political storm, drawing sharp criticism from Republicans and reigniting debate over race, power, and immigration in the Lone Star State.
According to Fox News, state Rep. Gene Wu, who leads House Democrats, is facing backlash after comments he made late last year began circulating widely on social media.
The remarks came during a Dec. 31, 2024, episode of the “Define American” podcast hosted by journalist Antonio Vargas, titled, “In this Texas District, 1/3 of Residents are Undocumented.”
During the conversation, Vargas asked Wu to zoom out and describe the broader forces shaping politics in Texas and the nation, particularly around immigration.
Wu responded by arguing that fear of demographic change is a major driver of current political tensions.
“The scary thing for me is that what is driving this newest round of anti-immigrant sentiment is purely a sense of White nationalism,” Wu said.
“That there is a sense of, ‘America really just belongs to White people,’ that this was that a lot of people believe that God gave America to White people to rule, and that any time that immigrants, minorities make progress in this country, that that is seen as a slight against them,” he continued.
The discussion later turned to relationships among minority communities in Wu’s majority-Latino district. Wu said divisions among racial and ethnic groups benefit those in power.
“I think you’ve hit exactly the right point,” Wu said. “It’s not just Latinos. It’s not just Asians. It’s not just African Americans. It’s everybody. Right? We, our country and the forces that be, the powers that be, have spent tremendous time, effort and money to make sure that those groups are never united, that they always see each other as enemies, as competitors, without ever realizing that they share one thing in common, that their oppressors all are the same. The oppression comes from one place.”
“I always tell people the day the Latino, African-American, Asian and other communities realize that they are — that they share the same oppressor is the day we start winning, because we are the majority in this country now,” he added. “We have the ability to take over this country and to do what is needed for everyone and to make things fair.”
The clip’s spread online triggered fierce reactions from prominent Texas Republicans.
“Gene Wu is a radical racist who hates millions of Texans just because they’re [W]hite. This is who the modern Democrat Party is,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote.
Sen. Ted Cruz added, “The Democrat party is built on bigotry,” while Rep. Chip Roy called on Wu to resign, writing, “He should resign or the TX House should strip him of any power.”
Amid the backlash, Wu sought to clarify his remarks, arguing he was not referring to White people as a group but to Republicans as a political force. Houston Chronicle reporter Evan Mintz noted that Wu told him directly that the “shared oppressor” comment was aimed at Republicans.
“It is undeniable that Republicans have spent the past 50 years beating down communities,” Wu said.
Mintz added that while some Republicans accused Wu of racism, others criticized him for dividing Americans into subgroups in the first place — a framing that continues to fuel the controversy.
