A Republican Senate candidate argued to The Dallas Morning News editorial board earlier this month that ranchers in Texas should be allowed to shoot “wetbacks” trying to cross the border illegally.

The candidate, Chris Mapp, who is running in the Republican primary against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), also called President Barack Obama “a socialist son of a bitch,” according to the Morning News editorial board.

In a separate interview with the San Antonio Express-News on Friday, Mapp defended his remarks saying wetback is as “normal as breathing air in South Texas.”

Mapp is one of a few third-tier candidates in the race for Cornyn’s seat and is extremely unlikely to beat Cornyn.

The editorial board dubbed Mapp as one of the “little known” candidates that are “particularly intemperate.” The board wrote:

South Texas businessman Chris Mapp, 53, told this editorial board that ranchers should be allowed to shoot on sight anyone illegally crossing the border on to their land, referred to such people as “wetbacks,” and called the president a “socialist son of a bitch.

(Photo credit: Chris Mapp for Senate)

(H/T Huffington Post)