WASHINGTON — A Republican nominee for a Texas office drew bipartisan criticism after posting a photo from a University of Texas football game that critics called racist, portraying the Austin campus as dominated by foreign students contrary to enrolment data.
Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, drew a sharp rebuke from fellow Republicans as well as Democrats after posting a crowd shot at a University of Texas football game, while suggesting that what appeared to be students of South Asian descent reflected a large foreign-born or international student presence on campus.
"I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn't believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined," French posted to his X account.
He went on to claim that UT prioritizes foreign students in admissions and feared Texans were losing opportunities at the university.
"I weep for the families in Texas who can't get into UT because they prioritize foreigners over Texans," he said.
But enrollment figures released by the University of Texas at Austin show international students account for less than 10 per cent of the total student body.
Total enrolment reached 55,000 students for the fall 2025 semester, including 5,140 international students. Texas residents make up 80.5 per cent of all enrolled students.
For the undergraduate class, international students make up 4.3 per cent, and a state law requires 90 per cent of every incoming freshman class to be Texas residents.
UT Austin automatically admits the top five per cent of performers — who are also Texas residents — at every high school in the state.
The Texas legislature designed the initiative to promote diversity without explicitly considering race.
As in most of the country, Texas high school students are separated by geography, income and demographics, and by guaranteeing admission to top students at each high school, the statewide policy helps ensure universities draw from a broad cross-section of Texas communities.
That means more than 90 per cent of students at UT Austin are domestic, and more than four out of every five are Texans.
Vedant Nair, 24, who graduated from UT in 2024, said his parents immigrated to Oklahoma in the 1990s from Mumbai so his father could pursue an MBA at Oklahoma State University.
Nair was born in Oklahoma City and recalls running around in a child-size OSU Cowboys football helmet and driving a mini John Deere tractor. His upbringing, he said, was no different than those of his fellow Texans after his family moved to Dallas in elementary school.
Attending UT Austin was a dream come true, and a normal, American experience, he said.
"If you stripped away my name and skin colour, I think my story is pretty similar to a lot of other Texans at massive public high schools," Nair said. "The point is that myself, and all the other kids in that picture, are just regular American kids."
University spokespeople and French did not respond to a request for comment.
The debate touches on a broader political argument that non-US citizens are "displacing" American students at elite public universities, and the country at large.
French's remarks drew criticism from political figures and other social media users, who characterized the posts as racist or xenophobic.
Rodney Coates, a sociology professor at Miami University in Ohio, said French's comments echoed longstanding anti-immigrant and anti-Asian narratives in the US that have historically portrayed minority groups as threats to opportunities for others.
"It's easier to come up with a racist argument to organise a group of people under the presumption that, hey, they're hurting your chances," Coates said.
Such appeals often have little to do with the people being targeted and instead seek to mobilize voters by portraying them as victims. "Hate is one of the easiest means of organising," he said.
University figures show white students made up about 31.5 per cent of enrolment in 2024 to 2025, Hispanic students 25.5 per cent and Asian students 22.4 per cent.
University reporting treats race and ethnicity separately from international student status, meaning most students categorized as Asian are US citizens or permanent residents rather than international students.
The image French shared was a screenshot from a video posted by the official athletics account at UT Austin. He did not include information identifying the citizenship, immigration status, residency or enrolment status of any individuals shown.
For Nair, the unfortunate part of French's post was that it criticised a high point in school-pride history: the football team defeated The Ohio State University, the number one-ranked football team in the country.
"I don't think there is anything more American than people in cowboy hats yelling their heads off after one of the greatest comeback wins in college football history," he said.
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