Other Texas Republicans who criticized Trump were US senator John Cornyn, who called the tweets “a mistake and an unforced error,” and congressman Dan Crenshaw, who also used the opportunity to take a swipe at Democrats.

Crenshaw also represents a district near Houston, the most diverse city in the country by some measures. He, too, voted with his Republican colleagues against denouncing the presidential tweets.

The incident was enough for at least one Texas Republican to switch sides. Elsa Alcala, a former judge in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, said she was leaving the GOP, citing  Trump’s “racism” in a Facebook post.

“Trump speaks about brown people like me as lesser beings,” she told the Austin American-Statesman. “It’s cliche to say, but the Republican party left me.”

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