Texas Republicans were already fretting about slipping support with voters of color. Then Bo French got on X.<\/p>\n

The Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner posted a photo<\/a> of a crowd of University of Texas football fans, most of them people of color, saying<\/u><\/a>, \u201cThe problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.\u201dThe Sunday morning comments, which appeared to target South Asian students, sent Lone Star Republicans into a frenzy, worried about the impact the rhetoric could have on GOP candidates up and down the ballot, including Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s high-profile Senate race and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s reelection fight.<\/p>\n

A number of Republican lawmakers, including some in tough races, quickly denounced the post<\/u><\/a> as racist, as others squirmed with carefully worded statements. And GOP operatives winced at the potential electoral backlash \u2014 in a year that\u2019s already looking tougher-than-normal for a party that has dominated the state for decades. Still, no one explicitly called for him to drop out of the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis post on social media is profoundly unhelpful if his goal is to see Republicans win statewide races in a tough political environment in 50 days,\u201d said Matt Mackowiak, an Austin-based GOP consultant who advised Sen. John Cornyn\u2019s (R-Texas) unsuccessful primary campaign against Paxton.<\/p>\n

Cornyn condemned the post<\/u><\/a>, asking whether other GOP officials would \u201ccondemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas), who is facing a tough reelection fight in a Hispanic-majority district, told Blue Light News in a statement she\u2019s willing to \u201ccondemn racism\u201d wherever it comes from.<\/p>\n

“All I see in that photograph is a group of kids celebrating a Longhorns win. What can be more Texan than that?\u201d De La Cruz said, before taking a shot at her Democratic opponent, Bobby Pulido, for his past racial comments<\/u><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

And Karl Rove, a longtime adviser to former President George W. Bush, called French a \u201cbigot\u201d at a private lunch event and said he\u2019s voting for French\u2019s Democratic opponent, The Texas Tribune reported<\/u><\/a>. Meanwhile, state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, the Democrat running against French, said he had his best fundraising day<\/u><\/a> of the cycle after French\u2019s post.<\/p>\n

French didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment. He repeatedly stood by<\/u><\/a> his comments since Sunday morning. During a local radio appearance Monday, he said he didn\u2019t have any personal animosity against the students at the football game, but said that it is \u201cnot racist to point out that we should be favoring Texans over foreigners\u201d and that his fellow Republicans are afraid of being called racist<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The divide emerging among Texas Republicans over the social media post \u2014 and Democrats\u2019 eagerness to capitalize on it \u2014 show just how precarious the party finds its position this cycle. Texas Republicans were already worrying about losing support<\/u><\/a> from Hispanic and other minority voters amid a tough economic environment and President Donald Trump\u2019s unpopular immigration agenda. They need to hold onto or improve the incremental gains<\/u><\/a> they made over previous cycles with voters of color in a fast-changing state where non-Hispanic white people now only make up 37% of the population. The stakes are high this cycle: Most polls show Paxton slightly trailing<\/u><\/a> in a Senate race that could determine control of the upper chamber; Abbott appears to be in the toughest of his four election fights; and the state is home to several key House races.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think [French\u2019s post] independently and universally sours voter sentiment. But it contributes to GOP declining numbers with Hispanic voters particularly in the South Texas congressional races which we hope to win,\u201d said Alfredo Rodriguez, a Dallas-based Republican strategist, who called on French to \u201cstop the petty political theatrics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blast radius of French\u2019s posts was wide enough to garner carefully worded responses from the top of the ticket. Abbott said in a Sunday statement<\/u><\/a> that French\u2019s post \u201cis not my message,\u201d before noting unity \u201cdoesn\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<\/p>\n

Two of the students in the photo told the Dallas Morning News that they\u2019re U.S. citizens<\/u><\/a>. Most UT students are Texans \u2014 state law requires<\/u><\/a> that 90% of each freshman class come from in-state \u2014 and there is no evidence that the students in the photo French posted are foreigners.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans weren\u2019t thrilled about Abbott\u2019s response.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis had nothing to do with illegal immigrants,\u201d said Anang Mittal, an Indian American national GOP strategist, of Abbott\u2019s comments. \u201cThese were students at a college game. They’re not H-1B. If they’re students, they’re on a student visa. \u2026 It’s pretty damn disgusting of Greg Abbott to say, \u2018I condemn racism, but also, like, we’re keeping all the Indians out.\u2019 That’s essentially what that tweet read to me.\u201dDemocrat James Talarico called Paxton out on social media, asking if he would follow Cornyn\u2019s lead in denouncing French\u2019s post. The GOP nominee replied<\/u><\/a> that he condemns \u201cracism in all its forms\u201d \u2014 and then claimed Talarico had a \u201chistory of dividing Texans by race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for Paxton and Abbott did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Other Republicans were less willing to fully denounce French\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t really know the guy. I heard he said some not so pleasant things,\u201d said Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), who said he hadn\u2019t seen the posts \u2014 but launched into a criticism of immigration nonetheless. \u201cI am concerned about the number of people living in this country, and we don’t even know who they really are,\u201d he said. \u201dShut the border down for 10 years, and then let’s try to figure out who we got in this country because we don’t even know.”<\/p>\n

Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who campaigned with Talarico in Houston on Sunday, said French\u2019s posts came up in conversations with every Asian American voter he met.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was talking about it,\u201d Kim said. \u201cEvery single Asian American that I was with yesterday raised this with me. They were saying this is an example of, \u2018Not only are they not courting us or engaging with us, but they\u2019re actively demonizing us, actively being xenophobic and racist towards us.\u2019 We need leaders that stand up against this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The political damage could also extend \u2014 potentially for years \u2014 to Texas\u2019 small but growing Indian American population, the demographic group French appeared to target in his posts. Both Dallas and Houston have significant Indian American populations. In 2019, an event at a Houston stadium<\/u><\/a> headlined by Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi drew over 50,000 attendees.<\/p>\n

French\u2019s comments could alienate those same voters, said Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican consultant in Austin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just irritated a bunch of people, many of whom could be supporters and could be Republicans,\u201d said Steinhauser, a University of Texas graduate. \u201cI’d be willing to bet a lot of those kids that he was posting a photo of are probably, you know, their parents might be Republicans, or they might be Republicans, or conservatives, or independent-leaning conservatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

If French is elected, he would sit on a commission that regulates Texas\u2019 powerful oil, gas and mining industries \u2014 which has little to do with immigration or social issues. But French, a longtime provocateur in Texas political circles, has a history of incendiary statements. Just last year, Republicans were calling on French to resign<\/u><\/a> as chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party after he published an online poll asking whether Muslims or Jews were \u201cthe bigger threat to America.\u201d He deleted the post and said he regretted it, adding \u201cantisemitism has no place in the Republican Party.\u201d This spring, he unseated a well-financed Republican incumbent<\/u><\/a> for Texas Railroad Commission.<\/p>\n

French isn\u2019t the only politician in Texas who has made singling out Muslims part of his political brand. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has made \u201cpreventing Shariah law in Texas\u201d one of his legislative priorities. Patrick didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment. Abbott, Paxton and Cornyn have all called for investigations and other government action to stop development of a commercial and residential development being built by the<\/u><\/a> East Plano Islamic Center, a mosque outside Dallas.<\/b> And just last month, Abbott threatened to withhold funding<\/u><\/a> from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport to block plans for ritual washing facilities for Muslim travelers in the airport\u2019s terminals. There\u2019s little difference between French\u2019s attacks and the other politicians\u2019 actions, said Yasir Qadhi, an Islamic scholar at the Islamic center.\u201cIt is the same mindset,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cWhat we’re witnessing is really an unprecedented and increasingly brazen form of racism. It’s unfiltered, it’s unapologetic, it’s even stripped of even the pretense of political correctness. You know, this is a type of racism we’ve never seen in our lifetimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When French unleashed a string of inflammatory social media posts in 2025, several GOP officeholders \u2014 including Patrick, the lieutenant governor \u2014 called on him to resign as county GOP chair. But Republicans now refuse to tell French to drop out now \u201cbecause that might mean that there would be a Democrat elected statewide,\u201d said Glen Whitley, a Republican former Tarrant County judge. \u201cThat’s the bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s part of my frustration with the Republican Party altogether: They talk about being Christian, but they get up every morning to talk about who they hate,\u201d said Whitley, who still identifies as Republican but endorsed Talarico for Senate.<\/p>\n

Joey Fox contributed to this report.<\/i>
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Texas Republicans were already fretting about slipping support with voters of color. Then Bo French got on X. The Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner posted a photo of a crowd of University of Texas football fans, most of them people of color, saying, \u201cThe problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.\u201dThe Sunday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}