{"id":441935,"date":"2026-09-20T11:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T11:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/441935\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T11:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T11:24:12","slug":"texas-candidates-racist-post-shows-whats-wrong-with-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/441935\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas candidate’s racist post shows what’s wrong with politics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the second week of the college football season, in a clash of titans, the University of Texas scored 21 unanswered points<\/a> to surge past Ohio State in the fourth quarter and win, 24-23.<\/p>\n

The comeback, Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> decreed, was the greatest home victory in more than 130 years of Longhorn football.<\/p>\n

A screen grab of one celebratory moment showed a group of students ecstatic beyond belief. They were clad in the university\u2019s signature burnt orange. Two wore cowboy hats. One flashed \u201cHook \u2018em Horns,\u201d the university\u2019s proud hand signal.<\/p>\n

To see the picture earlier this month was to witness pure, untempered joy.<\/p>\n

But Bo French, the Republican candidate for Texas Railroad Commission, saw something different.<\/a><\/p>\n

Most of the students were darkly complected and apparently of South Asian heritage. French posted the photo and wrote on X, \u201cI heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn\u2019t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

He followed with a second post, doubling down on the racist \u201cGreat Replacement\u201d theory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike body-cams exposed criminals, social media is exposing how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners,\u201d French spewed<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s everywhere and far worse than any of us could imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many places, French\u2019s unapologetic, unvarnished bigotry would be disqualifying. But given Texas\u2019 strong Republican leaning he stands a better-than-even chance of being elected in November to the state Railroad Commission, which, despite its name, oversees Texas\u2019 vast oil and gas industry. <\/p>\n

The hateful gibe was perfectly in character. \u201cIn some ways in Texas this is old news,\u201d said Brandon Rottinghaus, who teaches political science at the University of Houston.<\/p>\n

Last year, as chairman of the Tarrant County GOP, French posted an online poll asking, \u201cWho is a bigger threat to America?\u201d The choice on offer: Muslims or Jews. <\/p>\n

Speaking in March at a political conference, he urged President Trump to round up and deport<\/a> every Muslim in the country, calling the Islamic faith subversive and a clear and present danger to America.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republican Party is used to Bo French making these kinds of outrageous statements,\u201d Rottinghaus said.<\/p>\n

Still, the response to French\u2019s latest acrid emission was telling, not least for what it says about reflexive partisanship and today\u2019s political reward structure.<\/p>\n

As you\u2019d expect, his Democratic opponent, state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, was scathing. \u201cI spent 25 years as an oil and gas engineer,\u201d he wrote on social media<\/a>. \u201cBo French spent Sunday morning sorting our student section by skin color … A man who can\u2019t tell a Longhorn from a foreigner has no business regulating anything in TX.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s outgoing U.S. senator, Republican John Cornyn<\/a>, was also quick to denounce French. \u201cThis is the Republican nominee for statewide office,\u201d Cornyn said in a post<\/a>. \u201cAre other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized.\u201d <\/p>\n

For Abbott and for Ken Paxton, who beat Cornyn in an eye-gouging, rabbit-punching Republican Senate primary<\/a>, the answer was, for all intents, the latter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not my message,\u201d Abbott said in a written statement, summoning the moral clarity and political courage of a puff pastry. \u201cWe all support our college football teams. The way we win the state is the same way we win football games. We unite under the brand of Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, just to have it both ways, Abbott suggested \u201cthat doesn\u2019t mean that Texas cannot also lead in having the toughest immigration laws of any state in America and freezing H1B visas at our universities.\u201d (The overwhelming majority of those holding H1B visas are Asian nationals from India and China.)<\/p>\n

Paxton responded by attacking his Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico<\/a>, for saluting Cornyn for taking a stand against French\u2019s prejudice. \u201cI condemn racism in all its forms,\u201d Paxton wrote on X<\/a>, adding, \u201cOnly one person in this race has a history of dividing Texans by race, and it\u2019s James Talarico.\u201d<\/p>\n

A simple, straightforward condemnation shouldn\u2019t have been hard. Lacey Hull, a Republican state representative from Houston, was among those in the GOP who showed how.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease delete this,\u201d she urged French on X<\/a>. \u201cThis post breaks my heart. I see college kids cheering on their football team. I see Texans.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Abbott, bidding for an unprecedented fourth term<\/a>, is facing a tougher than expected race against Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa.<\/p>\n

Paxton, whose unsavory resume includes impeachment, indictment, petty theft and charges of adultery<\/a>, has managed the rare feat of turning his race against Talarico into a nail-biter<\/a>. (It\u2019s been more than three decades<\/a> since a Democrat won statewide office in Texas.)<\/p>\n

Both need a robust GOP turnout to win in November and neither wants to risk alienating too many within the party\u2019s xenophobic, anti-immigrant wing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re concerned about turnout,\u201d said Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University. \u201cTexas is a red state<\/a>, but one thing that Republicans are concerned about is that the base may not turn out in as large a number as they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given French\u2019s loathsome history, Abbott and others in the party establishment worked hard to keep him from winning the Republican nomination, Rice noted. But not Paxton. He headlined the kickoff to French\u2019s campaign and has good reason to be glad he won and is now part of the GOP ticket.<\/p>\n

His presence means that Paxton is only the second most odious figure seeking statewide office in Texas in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the second week of the college football season, in a clash of titans, the University of Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3258,13868,27167,39740,1967,112768,3129,13161,152862,152861,977,27,152860,29,28,512,57807,7741],"class_list":["post-441935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-abbott","tag-america","tag-bo-french","tag-cornyn","tag-ken-paxton","tag-longhorn-football","tag-ohio-state","tag-race","tag-racist-post","tag-statewide-office","tag-student","tag-texas","tag-texas-candidate","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-university","tag-way","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441935","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=441935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}