Texas lawmaker abandons reelection bid after saying opponents running because they're 'Asian' (WP)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/03/texas-lawmaker-who-said-opponents-lined-up-because-theyre-asian-just-lost-governors-support/

Texas lawmaker abandons reelection bid after saying opponents running because they’re ‘Asian’
By Kim Bellware and Deanna Paul
Dec. 3, 2019 at 9:04 p.m. CST

A legislator in Texas abandoned his run for re-election Tuesday after igniting an onslaught of sharp criticism for saying his opponents were running because they’re “Asian.”

“During a recent interview with the Houston Chronicle I made some statements that were insensitive and inexcusable,” State Rep. Rick Miller said in a statement Tuesday to the Texas Tribune. “In trying to make a point about the campaign I used a poor choice of words that are not indicative of my character or heart.”

“I do not want to be a distraction for my party or my constituents, and therefore I have decided not to seek re-election,” he continued.

Miller, who represents District 26, was facing challenges for the 2020 Republican nomination from Leonard N. Chan, a 35-year-old public-sector policy researcher, and Jacey Jetton, a 36-year-old businessman and former chair of the Fort Bend GOP.

During the interview with the Chronicle, Miller, 74, had focused on his challengers’ ethnicity.

“He’s a Korean,” Miller said in reference to Jetton, who is a seventh-generation Texan, according to a campaign video. “He has decided because, because he is an Asian that my district might need an Asian to win. And that’s kind of racist in my mind, but anyway, that’s not necessary, at least not yet.”

Miller went on to say that Chan probably joined the race “for the same reason.”

“I don’t know, I never met the guy. I have no idea who he is. He has not been around Republican channels at all, but he’s an Asian,” Miller told the paper.