a pattern political scientists say shows how white fear of losing status shaped the movement to keep him in power.

They always implicitly or explicitly pathologize this. "We're just gonna rewrite the rules and laws of every institution to disenfranchise and dispossess you and make you a minority. Don't like that? Your white fragility is showing!"

“The Republican Party is, you know, dominated by white males, and the hard-core Republicans — especially in a place like Fort Bend — might not be fully awake to the fact that we are a melting pot,” he said. “They just may not believe that all these people of color — all these different religions, maybe Muslims, maybe atheists — have moved in and are voting.”

Ah, the ole' Melting Pot

Right-leaning media commentators sometimes assert that liberals are conspiring to increase the number of nonwhite voters in order to “replace” white ones.

It's only a conspiracy theory if you say it's bad.

“It is a power grab by white Republicans,"

So many white Republicans will meekly deny this, a terrible idea. Embrace the will to power, or increasingly hostile outsiders will rule you.