A political action committee backed by some of Texas’ most influential hardline conservative donors has emerged as the primary financial supporter of Bo French’s campaign for the Texas Railroad Commission during the recent Republican primary in March, investing a total of $375,000 to support his candidacy.
The Texas Freedom Fund for the Advancement of Justice, previously known as Defend Texas Liberty, contributed $225,000 to French’s campaign and allocated an additional $150,000 for an advertisement promoting his candidacy in a popular conservative newsletter. The funding for these PACs primarily comes from West Texas oil magnates Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, who have invested millions to steer the Texas GOP and Legislature towards their stringent anti-LGBTQ+ and immigration positions.
Dunn and Wilks’ PAC accounted for over half of the $637,139 French raised from the beginning of his campaign until late February, enabling him to secure a place in the May runoff against incumbent Jim Wright. The eventual winner will face Democrat Jon Rosenthal in November for one of the three seats on the commission, which oversees Texas’ oil and gas sector.
Neither French nor representatives from the Texas Freedom Fund responded to requests for comments.
In contrast, Wright, who has held his position on the Texas Railroad Commission since 2021, amassed nearly $1 million in contributions leading up to the primary, with numerous PACs and donors from the oil industry each contributing at least $10,000.
“I don’t think Jim Wright took this election seriously,” remarked Ted Auch, a researcher at Fieldnotes, a national oil and gas watchdog organization, who has been closely monitoring the commission and the election. He also indicated that Dunn and Wilks, both of whom built their fortunes in the oil industry, might view Wright’s lackluster campaign as an opportunity to replace him with their chosen candidate.
Experts believe the influx of donations reflects an effort to elevate French, a staunch far-right advocate, as he embarks on a statewide political journey.
So far, this strategy appears to be effective. In the March primaries, French prevented Wright from achieving the 50% majority necessary for outright nomination, allowing more time for his campaign as they head into the runoff on May 26, where voter turnout is expected to be significantly lower, and the electorate is typically more conservative. Incumbents facing runoffs often find themselves in precarious positions, especially following a primary where a majority of voters favored alternatives.
Wright garnered 32% of the votes in the primary, while French received 31%. The remaining votes were divided among three other candidates.
The candidate who secures the nomination is likely to win a seat on the commission, which has not seen a Democrat in decades. The winner of the November election will wield considerable influence over Texas’ oil and gas industry, overseeing key decisions related to energy production, environmental issues, and the overall health of the state’s economy.
Texas stands as one of the nation’s leading oil and gas producers, housing three major oil basins. If it were a separate nation, Texas would rank fourth in global oil and gas production, according to Virginia Palacios, the executive director of Commission Shift, a Texas-based watchdog group focusing on the oil and gas sector.
However, throughout his campaign, French has rarely addressed the pressing issues the commission faces, such as the growing number of abandoned oil and gas wells, the increasing volume of industry wastewater, and the newly acquired authority to permit carbon capture and sequestration.
Instead, French, who claims to operate energy security businesses in the Middle East, has focused on topics such as Islam, the Chinese government, and diversity efforts, positioning them as central themes of his campaign.
On his campaign website and across social media, French has asserted that the commission has permitted the Chinese Communist Party and Islam to proliferate in Texas’ oil fields. He has also criticized the commission’s diversity initiatives, arguing that funds allocated for diversity efforts could be better utilized to address the problem of abandoned oil and gas wells.
“If we eliminate all DEI expenditures at the Railroad Commission and direct that money towards the most qualified service providers, the budget for plugging orphan wells will stretch much further,” he stated.
During the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, French urged Republicans to be more outspoken in their Islamophobia and controversially called for the deportation of 100 million people, a number significantly higher than the estimated undocumented population in the country.
Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, noted that the financial backing signals a strategic objective by Dunn and Wilks to boost French’s political prospects early in his career, which could potentially yield benefits for them should French pursue higher office in the future.
Blank described French as a “natural ally” for donors like Dunn, who have historically leveraged their wealth to promote conservative candidates aimed at supplanting the more moderate faction of the party.
“We are witnessing a significant shift in the political landscape of Texas, marked not only by a new attorney general but potentially a new senator and certainly a new member of the railroad commission,” Blank commented. “These circumstances present opportunities for those with resources eager to influence emerging politicians, especially when those politicians align closely with their past ideological preferences.”
In contrast, Auch expressed concern that the outcome of the runoff election could jeopardize critical initiatives at the commission, including efforts to collect data regarding the volume of produced water generated by oil and gas companies.
“They are confronting an overwhelming influx of water and waste, which poses an existential crisis for them,” Auch stated. “The Railroad Commission, along with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, is currently at a pivotal juncture. They could choose one path or another, and I am genuinely worried about the direction they will take.”
