Republican D. F. “Rick” Miller, who represents House District 26 in Fort Bend County, has mostly avoided controversy since being elected in 2012 to the Texas Legislature.

"That changed abruptly and decisively this week, when the Houston Chronicle reported that Miller had attacked two of his fellow Republicans in flatly racist terms. Republicans including Gov. Greg Abbott joined Democrats in condemning Miller, a Navy veteran and business owner who by the end of the day decided not to seek re-election in 2020.

He may seem like the latest casualty of “political correctness.” His comments, however, reflect poorly on the Texas GOP’s old guard, as well as raising questions about the party’s ability to compete effectively in a diverse, outward-looking state.

Miller, 74, had drawn three primary challengers in his bid for re-election next year. Two of those challengers—Jacey Jetton and Leonard Chan—are of Asian descent, as are roughly 20 percent of voters in Fort Bend County. Both have been involved for some time in local politics .

Jetton, an Army veteran who runs a homeowner association management company and a business bookkeeping company, is a former chair of the Fort Bend Republican Party. Chan, a Houston Fire Department analyst, interned for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, and began his career in politics years earlier, when he was elected class president of his elementary school in Sugar Land.

“I promised lower prices and more selection of pens and pencils at the school store, and voted to get Legos for the kindergarteners,” Chan joked.

But in an interview with Hearst newspapers, Miller alleged that the ethnicity of these two opponents explains why they are challenging him in the primary, and insinuated that it is the sole source of their appeal to voters in the district.

“He’s a Korean,” Miller said of Jetton. “He has decided because, because he is an Asian, that my district might need an Asian to win. And that’s kind of racist in my mind, but anyway, that’s not necessary, at least not yet.”

Miller surmised that Chan, who he has never met, decided to enter the fray “probably for the same reason.”

“He has not been around Republican channels at all, but he’s an Asian,” he said.

In a follow-up interview, Miller walked back these comments. Sort of.

“I don’t know why they’re running. If that’s why they’re running, then good,” he said, adding that he thinks people should vote for the right candidate, or the one with the best chance of win the general election.

His constituents might well have concluded, even prior to this, that his various opponents are more well-qualified by that standard—and better equipped to represent this diverse and dynamic district in the state legislature.

Miller serves on the House Appropriations Committee, and during this year’s legislative session authored legislation to enable Fort Bend County to operate a cemetery on a site where the remains of 95 African-Americans, believed to have been prison laborers, were discovered in 2018—a meaningful accomplishment.

Still, he was perceived as a weak incumbent, having been re-elected last year by less than five points, in a district that was carried by Democrat Beto O’Rourke in Texas’s United States Senate race. In addition to having drawn three opponents in the primary, there are four candidates running in the district’s Democratic primary.

And Miller obviously did himself no favors with these comments, which were insulting, illogical, and so flagrantly racist that they elicited stern rebukes from leaders on both sides of the aisle.

Fort Bend County Judge KP George, a Democrat elected last year, asked Miller to apologize to not just his opponents, but the entire community.

“Fort Bend County is the USA’s most diverse county,” said George, in a statement, “And when individuals, especially those given the public trust, counter the Constitutional rights of Americans to run for office and spotlight someone’s race, ethnicity, or nationality, they weaken the uniting fabric that holds our community together.”

Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, swiftly rescinded his endorsement of the incumbent’s bid for re-election. His spokesman John Wittman explained that the governor deemed Miller’s comments “inappropriate and out of touch with the values of the Republican Party.”

Linda Howell, the chair of the Fort Bend County GOP, expressed concerns about Miller’s ability to represent such a diverse district in a statement asking Miller to consider withdrawing from the race. And Miller himself acknowledged their validity, in his own statement that afternoon.

“I do not want to be a distraction for my party or my constituents, and therefore have decided not to seek re-election,” he said, after apologizing to Jetton, Leonard, and his supporters.

What Miller’s GOP critics have not acknowledged, however, is that Republicans across the nation have been fretting about the kind of demographic change that has already happened in Texas, a “majority-minority state” since early in the 21st century. Many of them seem to have a sense that diversity is inevitably a threat to their party’s future prospects.

“He represents the old traditional Texas GOP that you saw for much of the last 20 years, especially in Fort Bend,” said Jay Kumar Aiyer, a political scientist based in Houston. “He thinks the party tapping a younger minority candidate is giving into political correctness, and not the reality of the district and county being so diverse.”

But that reality is not a threat to Republicans such as Jetton or Chan—not because they are Americans of Asian descent, but because they have shown a commitment to representing a diverse district, and have, as candidates, focused on issues of interest to the entire community, such as public education, transportation, and infrastructure.

And Miller’s downfall illustrates that his weakness is not a function of the much-discussed demographic changes in Fort Bend County, but of his own struggles to respond to such changes as a more effective leader might.

erica.grieder@chron.com