Cornyn Dares GOP to Condemn Texas Nominee
Cornyn Dares GOP to Condemn Texas Nominee
The News
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) called a social media post by Bo French — the Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner — an example of "intolerance and racism," and dared his own party to say the same.
French had posted a photo of South Asian students cheering at the Texas–Ohio State football game, captioned with a claim that the scene showed "how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners."
French, who won the GOP nomination for the statewide office that regulates Texas oil and gas, fired back by calling Cornyn a Republican in name only.
Timeline
Cornyn loses the Republican Senate nomination to Ken Paxton, and has since publicly declined to support him.
French posts a photo of University of Texas students cheering in the stands, decrying "foreigners" displacing Americans.
Cornyn publicly denounces the post as "intolerance and racism" and challenges Republican colleagues to condemn it. Three Texas House Republicans — Speaker Dustin Burrows, Jeff Leach and Lacey Hull — call on French to delete it.
Reactions
Cornyn framed the silence of his own party as the way, in his telling, great political parties self-destruct.
French did not back down. He accused Cornyn of cheering "foreign nationals over American citizens" and labeled him a Republican in name only.
Burrows, Leach and Hull broke with the nominee and asked him to take the post down. Raw Story reported that the three-sentence post drew in a conservative U.S. senator, an MS NOW panel, a rising Democratic figure and a string of local GOP officials.
Defenders of French cast the post as a statement about immigration policy rather than an attack on the students pictured. That split — racist attack or immigration argument — is the core of the fight.
What's Next
Cornyn's office has not said whether he will back French's Democratic opponent, Jon Rosenthal.
The open question in Austin is whether other statewide Texas Republicans follow Cornyn and condemn French, or stay quiet through the general election.
More
French is the party's official statewide nominee, which leaves Texas Republicans sharing a ballot with him whether they defend the post or not.
It is not his first controversy. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick previously called on French to resign as Tarrant County GOP chair over a post asking whether Jews or Muslims posed a bigger threat to America.
Cornyn is in the closing stretch of his Senate term after losing his primary, and has now broken publicly with two of his party's Texas nominees.
Poll
Should Texas Republicans condemn Bo French's post?
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