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Bo French Doesn’t Understand Texas

Bo French Doesn’t Understand Texas

Last updated on: September 14, 2026 at 4:59 pm by John Beckett

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Bo French Doesn’t Understand Texas 2026-09-14T16:59:45-06:00 John Beckett

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Bo French may be a native Texan, but there’s at least one thing about Texas this GTT1 Tennessean understands that he doesn’t.

Texas was never just about the Texians and the Texicans. It was also about the Germans, the Irish, the Chinese, and the Vietnamese. Now it’s about the Indians and people from other countries around the world2.

Texas has always been a place of opportunity, a place you could go when you needed to start over, or just needed to grow. Come here, work hard, and you can build a decent life for yourself and a better life for your children.

Whoever you are.

a commemorative plate in the Alamo Museum, San Antonio

Bo French can’t stand that some Texans don’t look like him

Bo French is the Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, an agency formed to regulate railroads that now oversees the oil and gas industry. It’s an important position.

On Saturday night, the University of Texas football team beat #1 ranked Ohio State in a comeback of historic proportions. French posted a crowd shot of UT students, wearing burnt orange and cowboy hats, throwing the “hook ‘em horns” sign, and generally behaving like enthusiastic college students at any big football school.

Except most of the students in this particular crowd shot were of Indian descent.

French posted on Twitter:

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 went on to say:

I weep for the families in Texas who can’t get into UT because they prioritize foreigners over Texans. Shame on you for ignoring that fact.

The fact is that Texas state law requires that at least 90% of each incoming UT-Austin freshman class be Texas residents. The most recent class had only 4% international students.

Some Republicans respond, some don’t

Republican Senator John Cornyn – who has suddenly found his voice now that he’s not running for re-election – condemned French.

This is the Republican nominee for statewide office. Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized. This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad.

Some Republicans have condemned him. Some have remained silent. Governor Greg Abbott declined to criticize French and is trying to have it both ways, which is typical for him.

A selective picture of Longhorn fans celebrating our biggest home victory-ever-actually shows a way that Texans unite … That doesn’t mean that Texas cannot also lead in having the toughest immigration laws of any state in America and freezing H1B visas at our universities.

Democrat Jon Rosenthal, who is running against French in November, said:

I wish I could say it was shocking but it’s not. This is true to form for Mr. French and it’s just disappointing. Those that sit by and let this pass without comment are part of the problem.

Harsh lands make harsh people

Texas is not a welcoming place.

It’s hot. North Texas is approaching its 50th 100 degree day this summer and that isn’t close to being a record. The rest of the state is similarly hot. It’s dry. While East Texas averages over 40 inches of rain per year, that figure drops the further west you go and much of West Texas is desert. There are hurricanes on the Gulf Coast and tornados throughout the state.

Farming and ranching are hard work and financially risky anywhere. Oil and gas have made a few people billionaires, but for the ordinary people in the fields, the work is hard, dirty, and dangerous. The tech industry is cleaner and safer, but it carries its own risks, financial and otherwise.

Harsh lands make harsh people. People in Texas will help strangers in an emergency, but everyday life? They’ve already got their hands full and either you deal with life as it is or you don’t.

Still, for those willing and able to work, and willing to take risks, Texas has always been a land of opportunity.

And it still is.

I became who I am in Texas

I came to Texas in 2001 for a job. I loved living in Atlanta and I never wanted to leave, but then I got a layoff notice. An opportunity presented itself in Dallas and I took it. 25 years later I’m getting ready to retire, on my own timetable. I call that a success.

Texas is where I grew from a seeker trying to recover from a toxic religious upbringing to a Druid who’s been blogging for 18 years, published two books, and edited a third. I couldn’t have done that in Tennessee (too much baggage) and I don’t think I would have done it in Georgia (I was too comfortable). I could have done it other places, but I did it in Texas.

Along the way I’ve met some wonderful people, some of whom have become my closest friends. People in blue states sometimes talk about Texas as though it was a red monolith, but remember that Joe Biden got 46% of the vote in 2020 and Kamala Harris got 42% in 2024.

As late as 2014 I was encouraging friends to move here from other places. Most of the major cities are solidly blue and they’re pretty good places to live. Even in North Texas I still occasionally see “Keep Austin Weird” stickers… though Austin has become more corporate in recent years (if you want weird to go Denton).

The pro-business Republicans have been replaced

And then Texas politics shifted. The George W. Bush pro-business Republicans (who I never voted for but could tolerate) were replaced by culture warriors and theocrats. I never thought I would miss Rick Perry (“Governor Goodhair”) but I do.

In 2017 Republican Texas House Speaker Joe Straus blocked an anti-trans bathroom bill, saying “I don’t want one suicide on my conscience.” He declined to run for re-election, knowing he would lose.

Every year more and more moderate Republicans have been primaried by theocrats and Trumpists. This year Republicans rejected four-term incumbent Senator John Cornyn and nominated Attorney General Ken Paxton, one of the most corrupt politicians in Texas history. Cornyn is very conservative, but Paxton is a bigger Trump supporter.

And they selected Bo French over incumbent Jim Wright, largely because French ran as a “MAGA Conservative.” Among other things, he ran a Twitter poll asking “who is a bigger threat to America – Jews or Muslims?” He later tried to walk back the antisemitism, but he said what he said.

And he said what he said again on Saturday night.

A nation and a state of immigrants

Immigration is a complicated issue and people of good will can disagree on the ultimate goals and the best way to achieve them. But for Bo French and too many like him, immigration reform isn’t about how many people with which skills the United States should admit. It’s not about immigrating “the right way.” It’s about restricting the idea of America and the idea of Texas to people who look and sound like them, ignoring the fact that America and Texas have been built by people who came here for a better life.

Texas makes Texans

A few years ago, my department at work held a chili cookoff. The winner – in a blind taste test – was a young woman from China.

This is Texas at its best.

Someone comes here for an opportunity, works hard, does well, and along the way learns some of the things that make Texas unique and adopts them into their life. And they add something to the wider culture that makes Texas even bigger than it already was. Have you tried halal barbeque?

If you can look at this picture and see anything other than Texans doing some of the most Texas things there are, something’s wrong with you.

Something’s wrong with Bo French.

Texas was here for me when I needed it

I’m optimistic about this year’s election. James Talarico is leading Ken Paxton in the early polls. Republican gerrymandering may generate more Republicans in Congress, but it’s also made more districts competitive in a year when Trump and the Republicans have made themselves incredibly unpopular with tariffs, the war in Iran, and the resulting inflation.

Win or lose, I’m out next year. Once I’m no longer tied to a job I can live where ever I want to live. I will miss my friends, but the older I get the less I tolerate the heat.

And I’m sick of the government harassing my friends.

And I’m sick of living in a place where people like Bo French can get a major party nomination to a state-wide office.

Don’t ask me where I’m moving to. I’ll share the details once they’re settled – once I have a contract on a house. Until then, keep silence.

But Texas was here for me when I needed a fresh start. Texas has been my home for 25 years. Texas has done the same for people from all around the world, including people from India and their children from Dallas and Austin and Plano who were born here and who know only Texas as home, who were enjoying the Longhorns beating the Buckeyes.

I think most of us understand that.

Bo French doesn’t.

1 GTT = Gone To Texas. Early 19th century Americans would sometimes pick up and leave for Texas, painting “GTT” on their front doors to let anyone who cared know what had happened to them.

2 It’s also about the Africans who were brought here against their will. We have made progress in eliminating the legacy of slavery, but we have further to go.

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