The often overlooked race for the Texas Railroad Commissioner received national attention this past weekend due to a viral tweet from Bo French, the former Tarrant County GOP Chairman who eked out a 1-point primary runoff victory to become the Republican nominee for the statewide position.
On Sunday, French posted a photo of a group of students at the University of Texas at Austin celebrating their football team’s comeback victory on Saturday over Ohio State. Many of the students depicted were of South Asian descent. “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this,” French wrote. “I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.”
The racial provocation drew a flurry of responses from prominent Republican politicians, operatives, and donors that highlighted a divide within the GOP over whether to fervently condemn, vocally support, or sidestep questions about French’s rhetoric.
Several Republican politicians in Texas publicly condemned the post as racist and unnecessarily divisive, some calling for it to be deleted. Among French’s Republican critics so far are outgoing U.S. Senator John Cornyn, state House Speaker Dustin Burrows, state Representative Jared Patterson, state Representative Drew Darby, former House Speaker Dade Phelan, and John Huffman, the former mayor of Southlake in Tarrant County. “Bo just got done watching one of the greatest college football games in the history of our state and said ‘this is the perfect time to post anti-Indian racism,’” Huffman wrote on X.
These posts, many from people who’d been relatively quiet as French—long an open extremist—ascended to his current nomination, have drawn praise from a number of liberal and Democratic commenters.
But not all have joined in on condemning French’s gratuitous and explicit racism.
Among French’s defenders in the GOP is Matt Rinaldi, former chairman of the Texas Republican Party, who lauded French for “pushing the Overton window on immigration.” Texas state Representative Andy Hopper, who represents a North Texas district, attacked Cornyn as a “smug globalist” after the senator spoke out. State Republican Executive Committee member Rolando Garcia wrote that French’s post was not evidence of successful assimilation—the students are all wearing burnt orange and celebrating the sport of American football—but rather the problems of “mass migration” and “ethnic enclaves.” Monty Bennett, the publisher of the Dallas Express and a major Republican donor who has contributed $5,000 to French’s campaign, shared French’s post with a statement that appeared to endorse French’s assessment: “The problem is much bigger than UT. … America must prioritize Americans, always.” Brandon Hall, an elected member of the State Board of Education, wrote that he stood with French and asserted that it wasn’t about “skin color” but rather “preserving our Texas way of life.” And Jake Lloyd Colglazier, president of the Fort Worth Young Republicans who was reported to have ties to white nationalists in 2022 and previously worked for a group Bennett quietly funded, wrote that French’s “perfectly reasonable post demonstrates the deleterious effect of mass immigration on our democratic system.”
Instead of clearly picking a side, two of the most influential statewide Republicans also found ways to make statements without saying much about French at all. Governor Greg Abbott, who backed French’s opponent in the primary but has since endorsed him, didn’t condemn French, instead saying “that’s not my message,” calling the photo “selective,” and touting his recent freeze of H-1B visas at Texas universities. Texas Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton condemned “racism in all of its forms” without mentioning French while accusing his Senate election opponent, James Talarico, of being racially divisive.
Amid the divided response, French doubled and tripled down on his remarks. Within a couple hours, he reposted the same photo, saying: “Like body-cams exposing criminals, social media is exposing how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners. “It’s everywhere and far worse than any of us could imagine.” Just before noon, he made a third post. “Generations of Texans have invested billions of dollars into UT,” French wrote. “Today it is filled with foreign nationals and Leftists who boo Ted Cruz. John Cornyn says we should accept decline. The voters I talk to want to return our institutions to serving the interests of citizens.” (Notably, Texas state law requires 90 percent of all entering freshman classes at UT Austin to come from Texas high schools or be state residents.)
For many unfamiliar with French, his brazen gutter racism may have come as a surprise or a shock. But this type of rhetoric isn’t an outlier or a one-off for French, who has run what the Texas Observer has described as a “fossil fascist campaign” for the Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry. Rather than meaningfully articulate his policy proposals, he has focused on repeated calls for the deportation of: politicians and journalists due to their race or religion; literally all Muslims; and 100 million total people, a number that would necessarily include many citizens.
As the Observer reported, French has repeatedly affirmed his belief in the far-right idea of the “Great Replacement,” a foundational neo-Nazi conspiracy theory that asserts Democrats, Jews, or some other secretive evil “cabal” is intentionally replacing the white population through mass immigration. “The Great Replacement is real,” he posted last November.
French has called for the United States to “be Rhodesia,” the failed white supremacist pseudo-state in Africa where a ruling white minority violently oppressed Black people in the 1960s and ’70s. Has also repeatedly shared posts from a Hitler-quoting self-described “Aryan” account called Captive Dreamer that is run by a Canadian man who is so racist his own father publicly condemned him. (In response to a post of my own noting this in February, French replied: “The more these commie journos talk about me, the more it helps.”)
At least once in the past, French backed down in the face of criticism over a similarly offensive post. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick demanded French resign from his role as the Tarrant County GOP chair last year after French published a poll on X asking whether Jews or Muslims were a bigger threat to America. French deleted the post and said he regretted it. (Patrick has so far remained silent on social media regarding French’s latest post.)
But now French has chosen to stand by his rhetoric and cast his Republican critics as “Republicans in name only” (RINOs) who are allies of the radical left.
This has gained French kudos from Sam Parker, a failed United States Senate candidate and popular antisemetic influencer, who applauded French for not deleting the post. In 2024, Parker attended a conference about the “Jewish Problem” and a gathering organized by Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist livestreamer who also posted the same photo as French, 6 and a half hours after French did so. Fuentes roiled Texas politics in 2023 after the Texas Tribune revealed his secret meeting with a political action committee funded by oil barons Farris Wilks and Tim Dunn. A PAC funded by Dunn and historically by Wilks has bankrolled French’s current bid.
French’s Democratic opponent for Texas Railroad Commissioner, Jon Rosenthal, lamented in a post on X that “it’s truly unfortunate that so many elected ‘leaders’ will just silently let this pass.” He also told the Texas Tribune that French’s remarks led to a fundraising boost for his campaign.
According to Kalshi, a popular yet highly controversial prediction market that allows users to bet on real-word outcomes and that regulators warn is rife with insider trading, Rosenthal has overtaken French as the favorite. Whether French’s remarks will crater his campaign remains to be seen. Right now, the Republicans condemning him may seem louder—with the help of media attention—than those defending him, but the Texas GOP has long shown its willingness to declare “no enemies to the right” and let any winner in the tent.
The post Not All Texas Republicans Are Condemning Bo French appeared first on The Texas Observer.
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