John Cornyn says he won’t vote for Bo French as backlash to racist post rises

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Thursday that he will not vote for Bo French for Texas railroad commissioner after a Sunday post by his fellow Republican on X calling Asian students at the University of Texas a “problem.”

“He’s an embarrassment to the Republican Party, and he’s going to drag the whole ticket down because of his racist comments,” Cornyn said of French in response to questions from the Washington Examiner. Whether he’ll cast his ballot for French’s Democratic opponent, state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, is still up in the air. “I may just leave it blank,” he added.

Cornyn’s recent escalation to his condemnation of French’s racially charged rhetoric followed widespread backlash from Democrats as well as some Republicans, including prominent politicians like U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows. Since Sunday, French has doubled down on his comments.

Cornyn has posted on X about the matter daily, including a repost of a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Karl Rove, a former adviser to President George W. Bush and GOP political strategist, titled, “Why I’m Voting for a Texas Democrat.”

In his initial post, French commented on a still of a Texas Athletics social media video showing students celebrating the historic Saturday night comeback by the Longhorns against No.1 Ohio State. The screenshot focused on a section of students who are predominantly of South Asian descent.

“I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,” French wrote.

Cornyn posted in response, “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.”

French’s history of controversial, racist comments didn’t begin Sunday. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in March, French called for the deportation of 100 million people, nearly a third of the country’s population.

As the Tarrant County GOP chair, French’s former post, he received condemnation for his repeated use of slurs on social media, as well as for posting a poll asking followers whether Jews or Muslims were a bigger threat to America.

On Tuesday, French followed up his Sunday post with another, saying “the radical left and their allies are attacking me” and urging supporters to donate to his campaign.

Cornyn responded with another post, “No takedown of offensive post, no apology. Just doubles down and raises $ using it. The Republican Party is better than this. We should all condemn this bigotry directed at our fellow Texans or we will soon find ourselves a minority party.”

After reposting Rove’s op-ed Wednesday, Cornyn followed up with another comment.

“The GOP’s stables need a cleaning. This is a good place to start,” he wrote.