Top Texas Republicans turned on Bo French over a post. Will it cost him votes?
Republican Bo French is running for the board that oversees oil and gas in Texas on 3 November. Leaders of his own party turned on him over a post.
What happened
The New York Times says the race for the Texas Railroad Commission is a test of how mainstream Bo French’s views are.
Texas elects a member of its oil and gas regulator on . The Railroad Commission of Texas oversees oil, natural gas and pipelines. Its three members are elected by the whole state for six years each, and one seat is on the ballot every two years. Early voting runs from 19 to .
The Republican candidate is Bo French. In September he posted a photo of University of Texas football fans who were not white, with the words “The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined“. Karl Rove, for many years an adviser to President George W Bush, said French is “a bigot“ and that he will vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal.
Texas senator John Cornyn wrote that “The Republican Party is better than this“, and later said he would not support French. Governor Greg Abbott said “That is not my message“. French answered that his critics were “less conservative“. Over the past year he has also written that Islam should be banned.
The New York Times wrote on that the race tests how mainstream his views are. Texas has not elected a Democrat to any statewide office since 1994. In 2024 Republican Christi Craddick won another seat on the commission by 16.6 points, 55.6% to 39.0%.
Railroad Commissioners are elected statewide to six-year, staggered terms. The Chairman is chosen by the Commissioners. One Commissioner position is on the ballot every two years.
Railroad Commission of Texas, Commissioners page
Sources: nytimes.com
The Pattern
We looked for cases where a party ran a candidate in a US general election who was known before the vote for his or her own remarks against people for their race, religion or sexual orientation, for a seat the party had won by at least 10 points the time before. We found nine such races from 2013 to 2024, in official election results.
Show the other 7 cases
The Read
All nine candidates did worse than their party had done the time before. Three of the nine lost, and both lower statewide candidates, in Texas in 2018 and Virginia in 2013, ran about eight points behind their party’s candidate for governor. Miller kept his post in a year when his governor won by 13.3 points. This time the top Texas race, for the US Senate, is close: an Emerson College poll had Democrat James Talarico on 48% and Republican Ken Paxton on 46%.
There are reasons for doubt. Greene ran three times in the same district and King twice in the same district, so the nine races cover six people. The 16.6 point mark from 2024 was for a different seat on the commission. In Alabama in 2017 Roy Moore also faced claims of sexual misconduct. Local analysis suggested more Republicans than Democrats had voted early in Texas, Al Jazeera reported on .
Disclaimer
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