AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Farouk Shami, the Democratic hair-care magnate running for Texas governor, says most of his factory employees are Hispanic because white people are not willing to work.

Shami, running against former Houston mayor Bill White, made the comments Friday in an interview with Dallas television station WFAA.

Shami said white people who look for work at his factories “either want to be supervisors or they want to be paid more than the average person and unfortunately, they exit.”

Shami was being asked to follow up on a comment he made at a televised debate between him and White in which he said, in an effort to advocate the benefits of immigrant labor that “without Mexicans, it would be like a day without sunshine in our state.”