Tarrant County GOP Chairman Bo French introduces Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton during a rally at the Tarrant County Republican Party Headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas on Monday, January 6, 2025.
Emil T. Lippe/For The Texas Tribune
Thank you, Sen. John Cornyn, for standing up for Texans.
On Sunday morning, Texas’ senior senator took to social media to call out Bo French, a fellow Republican and the statewide candidate for railroad commissioner, for his unabashed racism.
Here’s what happened: As the Longhorns celebrated an incredible come-from-behind win to defeat top-ranked Ohio State, French made it clear he cared more about the color of Longhorn fans’ skin than the content of the scoreboard.
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“I heard UT graduation this year looked like this,” French posted on social media with a photo of Longhorns cheering in the stands — students clad in burnt orange and cowboy hats, who looked to be of South Asian descent. “I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.”
Cornyn was having none of it.
“This is the Republican nominee for statewide office,” he posted in response. “Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized. This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad.”
To their credit, several other Republican politicians followed Cornyn’s example.
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Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said French’s post crossed the line and told him to delete it.
Rep. Lacy Hull, a Houston Republican running for reelection, also called on French to delete the post and stood up for the students. “This post breaks my heart. I see college kids cheering on their football team. I see Texans.”
As we write this, Republican Reps. Jared Patterson, Jeff Leach and Matt Shaheen have also issued similar statements.
That’s a good start. Here’s the next step: Republicans need to tell their voters not to support French for railroad commissioner. This wasn’t an isolated incident. French has a long history of racism and it isn’t going to stop unless voters make sure he loses.
If George H.W. Bush could endorse Democratic candidate Edwin Edwards against former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke in the race for Louisiana governor, then today’s Republicans should be bold enough to at least tell their base to skip over French’s name. Republicans don’t even have to go as far as Hawk Dunlap, who lost in the GOP primary against French and endorsed the Democratic candidate Jon Rosenthal. Just say no to Bo.
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Republicans had the opportunity to shut him down in their primary, much like how Texas Democrats rejected the antisemitic Maureen Galindo in the primary for the 35th Congressional District. Gov. Greg Abbott campaigned for the incumbent, Jim Wright. But Republicans still failed. Now the fight against French’s bigotry has made it to the general ballot.
You could say this is one of those “do right and risk consequences” moments that Sam Houston once described, but the reality is that the policy consequences for Republicans are quite minimal. Even if Rosenthal wins, Republicans will still have a two-vote majority on the three-member Railroad Commission. Conservatives will still largely get their way no matter what. And Rosenthal will bring the useful perspective of an experienced oil and gas engineer.
The bar for political courage here is very, very low. And yet many Republican candidates we’ve met during endorsement screenings have failed to meet it. Perhaps this moment will convince them to finally speak up.
If they don’t, Republicans risk the consequence of having to answer questions about why they elected an unrepentant racist to office. And the risk for all of us is that we’ll have a railroad commissioner who, as Gov. Greg Abbott said during the primary, “doesn’t know anything about oil and gas” and would “wreck” the industry. That we’ll have a man in power who doesn’t want Texas to win if he doesn’t like the color of the fans’ skin.
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Since then, Abbott has endorsed French. So has Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who once said French engaged in “[a]ntisemitism and religious bigotry.” For those wondering, Attorney General Ken Paxton backed French in the GOP primary.
The Longhorns put up a hard fight to win on Saturday. Republicans’ battle against the racists in their own party should be an easy one — but with the way things are going, don’t be surprised if they choke.