Left: Texas state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, Democratic candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission, has a mechanical engineering degree and spent 25 years working in the energy industry. (Rosenthal Campaign). Right: Republican candidate for Railroad Commissioner Bo French speaks at the Red River Roll Call, a Republican rally hosted by Texas Rep. Shelley Luther in Sherman on July 27, 2026. (Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune)
By Steve Wisch
Racist and antisemitic comments by Republican Texas Railroad Commission candidate Bo French have drawn national attention to his race against Texas state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, a Reform Jew. If Rosenthal is elected, he would be the first Jewish candidate elected to a statewide executive office in Texas history.
Justice Rose Spector, elected to the Texas Supreme Court in 1992, is the only Jewish Texan known to have won statewide office.
French also has questioned Rosenthal’s Jewish identity. At President Donald Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas Sept. 9–10, The New York Times asked French about antisemitism directed at Rosenthal. French told the Times that Rosenthal was “not practicing Jewish.”
“Anyone that thinks it’s their job to pass judgment on whether I’m Jewish or not can shove it,” Rosenthal told the Times in response.
Rosenthal was raised as a Reform Jew. His father, Prof. Haskell Rosenthal, was Jewish and taught mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin. His mother, Mary Rosenthal, was Christian but served as an adviser for many years for UT’s Hillel chapter. Rosenthal attended high school in Israel for a year while his father taught at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Last month, French drew national attention after posting a photo of students, largely of South Asian descent, celebrating the Longhorns’ football victory over Ohio State.
“I heard UT graduation this year looked like this,” French posted on X. “I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.”
French later wrote that he “weep[s] for the families in Texas who can’t get into UT because they prioritize foreigners over Texans.” Two students pictured told The Dallas Morning News they are U.S. citizens.
Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows were among Republicans who criticized French over the post. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn called French “an embarrassment to the Republican Party” and said he would not vote for him.
French also has targeted Rosenthal over his religion.
The Forward reported that in July, French circulated a fundraising email with an AI-generated image of Rosenthal smiling inside the room where Russia’s Romanov royal family was killed after the Bolshevik Revolution.
The email stated that Rosenthal “has much in common with the Marxist revolutionaries who brutally executed the Romanov family. My opponent has spent his time in office mocking Christianity, the Virgin Birth and Christian Communion, while voting against religious liberty and for the spread of Islam.”
The email was labeled “Radical Rosenthal” and featured a blood-red outline overlaying a black-and-white image of the execution.
“I do see it [French’s email] as antisemitic,” Rosenthal, the only Jewish member of the Texas Legislature, told the Forward. “Look at the history of the Bolsheviks and how the Jews were scapegoated. To invoke that here is disturbing.”
Antisemitic conspiracy theories linking Jews with Bolshevism and communism date to the early 20th century and were fueled in part by “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a fabricated text purporting to reveal a Jewish plot for global domination.
Though Rosenthal, a mechanical engineer who spent 25 years in the energy industry, has sought to focus on energy issues within the Railroad Commission’s authority, French’s comments have increasingly dominated attention surrounding the race.
Karl Rove, former President George W. Bush’s chief political strategist and a longtime Republican political consultant, said this month that he will vote for Rosenthal, breaking a more than 30-year streak of voting for Republican candidates.
Rove initially made the comments at a members-only lunch at the Headliners Club in Austin, where he called French a “bigot,” according to three attendees who spoke anonymously with The Texas Tribune.
Rove has since publicly stood by his decision.
According to a Sept. 28 Jewish Telegraphic Agency report, Rove specifically addressed growing antisemitism within the Republican Party in explaining his support for Rosenthal.
“The GOP has a growing number of Bo Frenches — and not only in Texas,” Rove wrote in The Wall Street Journal. He cited “‘just asking questions’ Jew-haters,” along with misogynists, conspiracy theorists and religious bigots who do not distinguish between Muslim terrorists and Muslim American patriots.
At The Texas Tribune Festival on Sept. 26, Rove again criticized French, saying, “My party is being infiltrated by people like Bo French.”
Cornyn also has condemned French.
“Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized,” Cornyn posted. “This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad.”
Cornyn has stopped short of endorsing Rosenthal and said he may leave the Railroad Commission race blank, according to JTA.
French’s campaign has focused in part on culture war issues outside the authority of the Railroad Commission, which regulates Texas’ oil and gas industry.
He has attacked the LGBTQ+ community and called for deporting 100 million people from the United States. At a Conservative Political Action Conference panel discussion in Grapevine in March, French said the “problem is actually Islam” and warned that Muslims could “infiltrate Texas and conquer Texas.”
In 2025, while serving as Tarrant County Republican Party chair, French posted a poll on social media asking which group posed a greater threat to America: Muslims or Jews. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick condemned the post at the time and called on French to resign as county chair, saying, “Antisemitism and religious bigotry have no place in Texas.”
French’s campaign website currently lists American Jewish Conservatives among his endorsements. The organization, formerly known as Dallas Jewish Conservatives, did not respond to TJP requests for comment on whether it continues to endorse French.
Additional scrutiny of French’s social media history emerged this week.
A CNN KFile investigation found since-deleted posts in which French called for the execution of political opponents, including former President Barack Obama and then-U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, who is Jewish and now represents California in the U.S. Senate. Some of the posts specifically called for public executions. French did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Rosenthal announced Sept. 25 that he and French had agreed to debate at 5 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Dallas Press Club. The debate is scheduled to be livestreamed. French had not publicly confirmed his participation as of the Tribune’s report that day. JTA reported Sept. 28 that the two candidates had agreed to the debate.
The TJP contacted French’s campaign for comment and offered French an opportunity to respond to reports of antisemitic comments and address issues in the campaign. The campaign did not respond.
The Texas Republican Party and the Tarrant County Republican Party also did not respond to requests for comment.
An earlier version of this story appeared in the Sept. 24 edition of the Jewish Herald-Voice in Houston.
