Texas Republican leaders are calling for Yolanda Waters, Galveston County Republican Party chair, to resign after it was revealed on Saturday that she had sent a text calling a black party operative the N-word several months ago.
In the texts (first reported by the Galveston Daily News), Waters complained about loans she’d made to State Republican Executive Committee member J.T. Edwards, calling him a “Typical Nig.”
Waters told the Daily News it was an “unfortunate typo.”
“I usually type very fast, and in this case, I moved too fast to see that the word was there,” she said. “I made the typo because I did not proofread my text.”
“I apologize to anyone who took my typo in offense,” Waters wrote in a Facebook post, describing herself a “highly educated Latina/African-American woman.”
“I am saddened and hurt that anyone believes I am ‘racist’ against my own people,” she wrote.
Over the weekend, the state’s Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) and Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush pushed for Waters’ resignation via Twitter.
“Her comments are offensive to everyone in the community,” Patrick tweeted.
Bush asserted there was “no reason, no excuse and no room in our party for racist comments.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) spokesperson, John Wittman, told the Austin Statesman that her comments were “absolutely abhorrent” and “have no place in the Republican party.”
Wittman said that Abbott had asked Waters to step down from Texas Board of Criminal Justice on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments on November 25.
Yolanda’s texts are the second scandal tied to racism to emerge from Texas in less than two weeks after state Rep. Rick Miller claimed that two of his opponents were running against him simply because they’re “Asian.” Miller announced he would not seek reelection several days after he made the comments.
