Republican slammed for racist tweet showing students celebrating dramatic college football victory
Bo French, the Republican nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission, has been widely condemned by members of his own party after sharing a post on X depicting non-white University of Texas students celebrating the school's victory over Ohio State, which he claimed was evidence that state institutions had been "overrun by illegal aliens and foreign nationals." The backlash matters because it highlights an internal rift within the Texas Republican Party, with senior figures publicly denouncing racism within their own ranks ahead of French's statewide campaign.
Senator John Cornyn led the criticism, warning that tolerating such rhetoric risks normalising intolerance and could cause the party to "self-destruct." State Representative Jared Patterson called the post "racist" and pointed out that the Railroad Commission regulates oil and gas, not immigration policy, while Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows and Representatives Lacey Hull and Jeff Leach also urged French to delete it, with Leach sharing a photo of his own son at the same game to illustrate the diversity of ordinary students being targeted.
- Republican Bo French faces GOP backlash over a racist post on X
- He linked non-white UT students to "illegal aliens," sparking outrage
- Senator Cornyn and other Texas Republicans demanded he delete it
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Bo French's defenders would argue he was making a broader political point about immigration enforcement and demographic change at public universities, a legitimate policy concern for many conservative voters, and that he has a right to express it robustly on social media without being cast as a bigot for doing so. They would say the swift, public pile-on from senior Republicans risks setting a precedent where any hardline immigration rhetoric is treated as automatically racist, chilling debate on an issue central to the party's base ahead of elections.
The case against
Critics within his own party would argue that using a photo of students celebrating a football win to imply they were illegal immigrants was both factually baseless and racially charged, conflating being non-white with being a foreign national in a way that tars ordinary American students of colour. They would say that as a candidate for an office with no bearing on immigration policy, French's comments served no legitimate policy purpose, and that Republicans have a responsibility to repudiate rhetoric that alienates minority voters and damages the party's broader credibility.