{"id":436103,"date":"2026-09-15T00:40:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T00:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/436103\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T00:40:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T00:40:41","slug":"texas-gop-rail-nominee-bo-french-draws-backlash-over-ut-photo-immigration-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/436103\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas GOP rail nominee Bo French draws backlash over UT photo, immigration remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 A social media post from Saturday\u2019s University of Texas football game has sparked a political firestorm<\/a> in Texas, drawing condemnation from top Republicans and Democrats and rippling into the state\u2019s U.S. Senate race.<\/p>\n

Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, posted a photo from the game and wrote that he had heard UT graduation \u201clooked like this,\u201d adding that the problem was \u201cfar worse than anyone imagined.\u201d In another post, French wrote that Americans are being \u201cdisplaced by foreigners.\u201d<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | TX Republicans condemn Bo French’s racist posts calling Asian students at UT a “problem”<\/a><\/p>\n

Elected officials from both parties quickly criticized French\u2019s comments. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn called them \u201cintolerance and racism.\u201d <\/p>\n

“This is how great political parties self-destruct,” Cornyn said. “Sad.”<\/p>\n

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows told French to delete the post.<\/p>\n

“You can oppose immigration policy without demeaning people because of their race or ethnicity,” Burrows said. “This post has crossed the line.”<\/p>\n

Republican state Rep. Jared Patterson called it racist and wrong. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is absolutely nothing Christian or conservative about looking at a crowd of young Texans at a college football game, seeing the color of their skin, and declaring that they are a \u2018problem,'” Patterson said. “These are 20-year-old kids cheering for their university\u2014not political props and not targets for racial attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic Austin-area state Rep. Vikki Goodwin also condemned the post, writing, \u201cWe condemn racism, and racist posts like this one from Bo French.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversy also became an issue in the U.S. Senate race. Democratic nominee James Talarico called on Republican Ken Paxton to condemn French\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

“Racism has no place in Texas,” Talarico said.<\/p>\n

Paxton later wrote, \u201cI condemn racism in all its forms,\u201d but did not mention French by name and instead criticized Talarico.<\/p>\n

UT enrollment figures<\/a> from last school year (2025-2026) show 80.5% of students were Texas residents, 10.2% came from other U.S. states and 9.3% were international students.<\/p>\n

After the backlash, French did not back down. He responded that UT is filled with \u201cforeign nationals and leftists.\u201d He also said, \u201cJohn Cornyn says we should accept decline. The voters I talk to want to return our institutions to serving the interests of citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

CBS Austin reached out to French\u2019s campaign for comment. We are waiting to hear back. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 A social media post from Saturday\u2019s University of Texas football game has sparked a political…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-436103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}