Texas thrives because a broad array of people keep moving there in pursuit of the American dream.
The most striking aspect of Texas Republican Bo French’s widely circulated posts on X, targeting students of South Asian descent at a University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) football game, is the unambiguous racism they reveal. If Texans want to maintain the kind of uninterrupted economic and cultural expansion they have enjoyed for four decades, they should reject nativism and tribalism and seize the future-facing, individual-centered, and open-minded attitudes and policies that have earned the state the designation of America’s “new center of gravity” (as noted by The Economist).
In a move that stands out in today’s climate, French did not mask his disdain at seeing students of color rooting for the Longhorns after a dramatic comeback. He wrote, “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” For French, who emphasizes his genealogical credentials in his campaign biography—”Bo grew up in a family that’s been in the oil business for over 80 years”—Indian Americans simply cannot be real Americans in the same way that people descended from British, Swedish, or German ancestors are.
I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined. pic.twitter.com/Ys1bql0y4U
— Bo French (@bofrench) September 13, 2026
In case anyone missed his point, the Republican candidate for the powerful Texas Railroad Commission (which oversees the state’s oil and gas industry) followed his initial post with another, asserting, “Like body-cams exposing criminals, social media is revealing how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners. It’s everywhere and far worse than any of us could imagine.” Earlier, regarding the brutal Labor Day stabbing of Texas state employee (and Reason supporter) Andrew Wimsatt, French had gone even further, writing about the alleged killer, “Someone named ‘Chinedu Ogbodiegwu’ shouldn’t even be in our country.”
As The Atlantic‘s Conor Friedersdorf has observed, Texans are not being displaced at UT Austin, particularly at the undergraduate level, even as the university becomes more selective. “There is no reason to assume that the students in the photograph are foreigners, and Texas does not prioritize foreigners over Texans. Quite the contrary. Ninety percent of first-year slots at UT Austin go to Texas residents.” That policy aligns with most other flagship state universities. Last year, the university—ranked in the top 30 by US News & World Report—announced a record number of freshman applications, yet the vast majority of undergrad and graduate students came from Texas:
Students who are Texas residents make up 80.5% of all students, while another 10.2% hail from outside Texas, representing 48 other U.S. states and the District of Columbia. International enrollment of 5,140 is down 1.7% from 2024 and comprises 9.3% of the student body.
Thanks to a combination of court rulings and a conservative state legislature, Reason‘s Robby Soave notes that UT Austin has been a leader in replacing race-conscious admissions with merit-based procedures. Consequently, when commentators like French claim that “the entire system is biased against heritage Americans and in favor of third-worlders,” they are mistaken.
Indeed, it takes a particular form of racialized short-sightedness to view a photo showing students of diverse backgrounds cheering together at an American football game as a dystopian warning. If anything, the image stands as a tribute to the idea of America as a melting pot.
That perspective rings especially true for Texas as a whole, a state whose population has surged by 86 percent since 1990, reaching about 31.7 million. Now the second-most populous state in the U.S. after California, Texas is home to roughly 5.8 million people born outside the country, meaning foreign-born residents account for 18.4 percent of the population. That figure surpasses the national average of 14.8 percent but remains below states like California, New Jersey, New York, and Florida. If current trends persist, Texas is expected to pass California to become the most populous state by 2050. Yet the growth has primarily come from domestic migration from other parts of the country (notably from California), not from foreign immigration.
What motivates people to relocate from California to Texas? Demographer Joel Kotkin argues that a blend of economic opportunity and a broader sense of opportunity across society is at play. Once the quintessential home of the American dream—centered on Hollywood and a thriving tech, agricultural, and manufacturing landscape—California has grown more hostile to business, overregulated, and prohibitively expensive. “California needs to refocus not just on elite industries and research, but also on cultivating blue-collar and service-sector jobs for everyone,” he remarks. “Right now, we don’t do that anymore,” he adds, “Texas, with its challenging climate, modest scenery, and sometimes blunt culture, does.”
French’s posts about Americans of South Asian descent are not merely coarse; if his views prevail, Texas will be left with stubborn weather and unremarkable landscapes as both domestic and international migrants seek a more welcoming home elsewhere.
