TEXAS — The Texas Railroad Commission is made up of three commissioners who oversee the state’s largest industry that earned $27 billion in the last year.
This year, incumbent Jim Wright is up for reelection, but he’s got a tough primary runoff battle against former Tarrant County Republican Party Chair Bo French. French is campaigning more on social issues than those related to the office.
French has openly embraced Islamophobia and called to deport 100 million people, including legal visa holders and U.S. citizens who “call for the overthrow of our Constitution.”
“That’s the only way we’re going to stop the Islamification of Texas,” said French during this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
If elected, French also wants to weed out diversity efforts in the Railroad Commission and roll back environmental regulations.
“We’re seeing high prices because of the tensions in the Middle East. But when that goes away, we don’t want to also have higher prices because we’ve increased the burden on operators,” said French.
French says it’s what Texans are concerned about, and he wants to advocate for expanding the state’s foreign land ownership ban to Muslim-majority countries.
“When you have a statewide elected official, you have a giant platform to talk about the things that voters care about,” French said.
And it’s getting him plenty of support. French trailed Wright in the March 3 primary by less than 10,000 votes.
Wright says he’s focused on growing the state’s oil and gas industry and making prices cheaper for Texans. He predicts the federal actions in Venezuela and Iran will result in opportunities to do so.
“When this is all over with, that we’ll have a better consistency in what that is so that we don’t continue to see huge fluctuations like we’ve seen throughout our history,” said Wright.
His approach to possible concerns about Islam is to continue the state’s energy dominance.
“That’s the approach that I’ll continue to look at. I don’t want to throw a net over an entire ethnic group. My Christianity doesn’t allow me to believe that way,” said Wright.
The two have also split support from state leaders. Gov. Greg Abbott endorsed Wright and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick distanced himself from French over past controversial comments. Meanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is campaigning with French, which some say could cause problems for the party down the road.
“Republicans see both Attorney General Paxton, who’s running for the United States Senate, and Bo French as their weak links, as people who in the general election might put off enough voters to allow a Democrat to squeak through,” said Cal Jillson, a Southern Methodist University political science professor.
The winner of the May runoff will face the Democratic candidate, state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston.