Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico snagged a surprise endorsement from a conservative youth activist with ties to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
On Monday, Vasant Bhatt, a 21-year-old student who previously interned for Cruz and organized for the right-wing Texas Youth Summit, announced on X that he had cast his ballot for Talarico.
"As a second-generation Indian American, I am thoroughly disgusted by the xenophobia, racial resentment, and increasingly brazen attacks on my identity," Bhatt wrote. "My family has contributed to the American story through hard work, sacrifice, and an unwavering belief in the opportunities this nation promises. I am every bit as American as anyone else, and I will not tolerate being treated as a perpetual foreigner in the country I call home."
"I implore every eligible Texan to get out and vote," he said. "This election is about the kind of state and country we are prepared to defend—and the principles we refuse to surrender."
Bhatt also confirmed that he voted Democratic in the state Railroad Commission race, where Republican candidate Bo French has been widely condemned for a racist tirade in which he said a photograph of mostly brown-skinned University of Texas students cheering at a Longhorns game proves the "problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined" and that Americans "have been displaced by foreigners."
Bhatt's remarks come amid a broader discomfort of Indian-American Republicans as the MAGA movement targets them for hate. Vivek Ramaswamy, a right-wing businessman and the GOP's candidate for governor of Ohio, sounded the alarm on the racist attacks he has experienced within his own party in a New York Times op-ed earlier this year.