A Republican candidate for Texas attorney general sparked sharp backlash Monday after saying he would seek to revoke the citizenship of a Democratic legislative leader if elected, a proposal legal experts called unprecedented and unfounded.
Aaron Reitz, one of four Republicans vying for the party’s nomination in the March 3 primary, said on the social platform X that he would work to have state Rep. Gene Wu “de-naturalized” — stripped of his U.S. citizenship — in response to a short, resurgent video clip of Wu discussing racial and political unity.
“As AG, I want to see [Rep. Gene Wu] de-naturalized,” Reitz wrote, asserting without evidence that the Houston Democrat had concealed “anti-American sentiment” during his citizenship application. “Wu is a subversive whose citizenship should be revoked.”
Wu, who leads House Democrats, declined to comment through a spokesperson.
Legal scholars said denaturalization is rare and governed by narrow federal standards, typically involving proven fraud during naturalization or membership in designated illegal organizations. Critics said Reitz’s remarks mix political rhetoric with a misunderstanding of U.S. law.
The controversy stems from a 2024 interview in which Wu discussed the political potential of diverse communities in Texas, a longer conversation that was widely recirculated this week in a 28-second excerpt. Opponents portrayed the comments as divisive, though fact-checking shows the clip omitted broader context in which Wu spoke about unity and systemic disadvantage rather than advocating animosity.
Numerous conservative figures quickly adopted the criticism. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, charged that “the Democrat party is built on bigotry,” while Attorney General Ken Paxton labeled Wu a “radical racist who hates millions of Texans just because they’re white.” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, also a GOP candidate, called for Wu to resign from the state House.
Reitz, a former official in the Trump administration’s Justice Department, joins state Sens. Joan Huffman of Houston and Mayes Middleton of Galveston and Rep. Roy in the GOP primary for attorney general.
The episode underscores the intensifying partisan rancor ahead of the election as candidates vie for influence by staking out hard-line positions on immigration, identity and loyalty.