Other GOP midterm candidates face scrutiny for offensive posts
Karl Rove, the longtime political adviser to former President George W. Bush, told a private event in Austin on Sunday that he could not support Bo French’s candidacy for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, the Texas Tribune reported. Instead, Rove said, he would vote for Houston Democrat Jon Rosenthal over French, ending a 32-year run of exclusively backing Republicans. Rove called French “a bigot” over a social media post targeting University of Texas students celebrating the school’s football victory over top-ranked Ohio State.
The controversy began Saturday when French posted on X a photograph of University of Texas students in team attire celebrating the Longhorns’ home victory over Ohio State. The students pictured all appear to be non-white. French wrote: “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” The Guardian noted that French could not have known the students’ immigration status; according to Texas Global, fewer than 10% of the university’s 55,000 enrolled students are international.
French continued to defend the post on Monday in an appearance on a radio show hosted by Mark Davis. He labeled Republicans who had criticized him as “less conservative.” “The establishment raised and spent $7[m] against me in the primary,” French told Davis, according to the Tribune. “Many of the people who criticized me yesterday were some of the same people involved in that effort. It’s no surprise that the less-conservative people in Texas are the ones attacking me.” Sen. John Cornyn’s attack on X came after French followed up his original post with an attempt to fundraise off the controversy.
Cornyn, the establishment Republican Texas senator who lost his re-election primary to Ken Paxton in May, wrote on Tuesday: “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.” Gov. Greg Abbott told Politico: “That is not my message. A selective picture of Longhorn fans celebrating our biggest home victory-ever actually shows a way that Texans unite. We all support our college football teams. The way we win the state is the same way we win football games. We unite under the brand of Texas.” State Sen. Lacey Hull urged French to remove the post, writing on her own feed: “This post breaks my heart. I see college kids cheering on their football team. I see Texans.” Kevin Eltife, chair of the university’s board of regents, said in a statement: “It’s the same remarkable view I have at graduation ceremonies and anytime I’m on campus. I’m proud to celebrate all our Longhorn students today and every day. Thank you for making us proud.”
The Guardian reported that French’s post fits a wider pattern in which Republicans in midterm races have faced scrutiny for past social media posts or affiliations. In Texas, House candidate Brandon Herrera — who has 4 million YouTube followers — drew renewed attention for past offensive social media posts under the handle “the AK guy,” including a 2020 video in which he fired a gun at bottles of ranch dressing and, after they exploded, rubbed the condiment on himself and said it would “make me irresistible to the fat bitches.” In 2024, after he described a Nazi-era gun as “the original ghetto blaster,” the Republican Jewish Coalition condemned him as “a goose-stepping extremist.” In New York, state Sen. Peter Oberacker, a Republican congressional candidate, deleted a Facebook post honoring his grandfather Ludwig Oberacker, who was killed during the Battle of the Bulge in Nazi uniform; the post quoted Oberacker as writing “I salute all who served.” In Florida, US House candidate Marshall Rowson faced questions over his ties to the League of the South, a group the Guardian identified as white supremacist and as advocating southern secession. Talking Points Memo reported that Rowson marched with neo-Nazis at the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, where counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed; Rowson did not respond to a request for comment after the Washington Post amplified the story on Tuesday.