Republicans can claim they are not racists, but they keep electing people like Bo French.

Meet Bo French, the Republican nominee for a statewide office in Texas.

French is not some anonymous internet troll sitting outside the political system. He is the Republican nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission, an office that regulates one of the most important industries in the state. He won a Republican primary and now appears on the statewide ballot under the same party label as Donald Trump, Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, and every other Republican candidate.

That is why his record matters.

So rather than asking what critics say the Republican Party believes, it is worth looking at what one of its own statewide nominees has actually said, what Republican voters were willing to nominate, and how Republican leaders have responded when confronted with those statements.

South Asian students at UT, September 2026. French posted a photograph of largely South Asian-looking UT students celebrating a football victory and wrote, “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” He then said Texas families could not get into UT because the university “prioritize[s] foreigners over Texans,” despite having no information establishing that the students pictured were foreigners. He separately said the photograph showed how many Americans had been “displaced by foreigners.”
A person’s African name as grounds for exclusion. An archived copy of one of French’s recent posts reads: “Someone named ‘Chinedu Ogbodiegwu’ shouldn’t even be in our country.” That statement makes the person’s name itself the reason given for saying he should not be here.
Native Americans as “third world savages.” In a 2025 post accompanying a picture of Native American women at Mount Rushmore, French wrote about “third world savages” whom “we conquered” and said they should be added to a list of people to “denaturalize and deport.” His campaign later said he meant only the people pictured rather than Native Americans generally.
“Chimp Out” and SNAP recipients. Before SNAP benefits were scheduled to lapse in November 2025, French declared “National Chimp Out Day” and warned about 40 million recipients potentially rioting, invoking the unrest after George Floyd’s killing. Critics said the “chimp” language evoked a longstanding racist comparison of Black people to apes. French denied that interpretation and said “chimp out” merely meant freaking out.
Jews versus Muslims. In June 2025, he posted a poll asking, “Who is a bigger threat to America?” with only two choices: “Jews” or “Muslims.” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick responded at the time by calling for French to resign as Tarrant County GOP chair and saying antisemitism and religious bigotry had no place in the party. French later said he regretted posting the poll.
Muslims as the problem, not merely extremism. At CPAC in March 2026, French said Republicans should more openly embrace Islamophobia, called for deporting 100 million people, and said, “The problem is, we call it Sharia [law], but the problem is actually Islam.” He warned Muslims could “infiltrate Texas and conquer Texas” and said immigration since 1965 had brought people whose “culture and values do not align with America.”
“Islamic invasion.” French’s own campaign website has an issue heading, “Stop the Islamic Invasion of Texas,” and says he will fight what it calls an “Islamic invasion” from the Railroad Commission. In February, he canceled an appearance because the event was at an Islamic center and said the “Islamization of Texas” had made the state more dangerous.
Zohran Mamdani. French called the Muslim New York politician an “islamitard” and called for his deportation. During the same episode, he reposted material accusing immigrants of eating people’s cats and dogs.
Ilhan Omar and mass deportation. In August 2026, he wrote that he would accept fewer deportations if Omar were among them, then added: “Just kidding. I want them all gone.”
Birthright citizenship. After the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, French called the decision “traitorous,” used the term “anchor babies,” and said Texas should refuse to recognize children born to undocumented parents as citizens.
Puerto Rican journalist. Reporting on French’s earlier posts says he labeled a Puerto Rican journalist “soon-to-be-deported,” although Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.
His Jewish opponent and Bolshevism. French circulated an AI-generated image portraying his Jewish Democratic opponent, Jon Rosenthal, smiling in the room where the Romanov family was murdered by Bolsheviks. The Houston Press reported the incident and quoted a Chronicle editor asking why French was linking his Jewish opponent with the Bolshevik Revolution.

And there is another category I have not even included above because it is not racial: his repeated anti-gay and disability slurs. The Texas Tribune documented him calling opponents “homo,” using “retard” repeatedly, and running a poll in which support for Kamala Harris could supposedly mean someone was “Gay” or “Retarded.”

The eight Republican nominees for the major statewide races on the November 2026 Texas ballot are: