Bo French has emerged victorious over Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright in the recent primary runoff, where French emphasized his commitment to combating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and Sharia Law, rather than concentrating on conventional regulatory matters.
With this win, French is set to challenge Democrat state Representative Jon Rosenthal in the general election scheduled for November. It has been decades since a Democrat held a position on the railroad commission.
Expressing gratitude for the support he received from Texas Republicans statewide, French stated, “Our campaign was focused on defending oil and gas and prioritizing America First. That’s the mission I will continue to pursue as we shift our focus to radical Democrat Jon Rosenthal,” in a message shared on social media.
Tuesday’s race, often characterized as low-profile, turned out to be one of the night’s most competitive contests. French initially led among early voters, but Wright managed to close the gap as Election Day votes were counted. French declared his victory shortly before midnight, winning by a margin of less than two percentage points.
Should he prevail in November, French will join the three-member panel overseeing the railroad commission, a regulatory body with a century-long history tasked with managing Texas’s oil and gas sector—an industry that accounted for nearly fifty percent of U.S. oil production last year.
A former chairman of the Tarrant County GOP, French holds some of the more extreme views among Texas Republican officials, even as the party has shifted further right in recent years. Earlier in 2023, he called for his party to embrace Islamophobia and suggested the deportation of 100 million people, a number that would include a significant portion of the U.S. population.
French’s controversial statements have drawn criticism even from within his party, particularly due to his provocative social media posts that frequently employed slurs against individuals with mental disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community. In response to a poll he posted questioning whether Jews or Muslims posed a greater threat to America, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick urged him to resign from his county chairmanship.
Patrick, along with Governor Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, endorsed Wright as their preferred candidate.
This primary runoff attracted an influx of funding, rare for a down-ballot race. Both candidates raised over $3 million since February, drawing contributions from a wide array of donors across the political spectrum. While big oil companies and trade organizations contributed significantly to Wright’s campaign, French’s financial backing came mainly from influential conservative megadonors, including the Texas Freedom Fund for the Advancement of Justice, which spent approximately $1 million on his behalf, constituting over 60% of his total funds raised.
At the beginning of the race, French, who claims to be an energy adviser for a Middle Eastern company, accused both the railroad commission and Wright of allowing China and Islam to encroach upon Texas’s oil fields. He criticized the commission for what he perceived as rampant diversity initiatives.
Throughout the campaign, French accused Wright of facilitating the introduction of “Sharia law” within the agency, even going so far as to label him “Jihadi Jim.”
The upcoming six-year term will coincide with a period of uncertainty and volatility for Texas’s oil and gas industry, marked by fluctuating oil prices and thousands of job layoffs. Wright faces the challenge of managing regulatory oversight amid rising concerns about industry wastewater that could disrupt production and cause environmental harm if not addressed. The commissioners will also be responsible for overseeing a budget of $593 million, the highest it has been in years.
