Bo French declares victory over Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright in GOP primary runoff
Source: Texas Tribune
2026 Texas Elections
Bo French declares victory over Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright in GOP primary runoff
Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows all supported French's opponent.
by Carlos Nogueras Ramos
May 27, 2026, 12:13 a.m. Central
Bo French speaks at a Lone Star Liberty PAC rally at The Angry Elephant in San Antonio on Thursday, May 21, 2025. Chris Stokes for Texas Tribune
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Bo French declared victory over Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright in the primary runoff Tuesday night, in a campaign where French prioritized issues like fighting DEI and Sharia Law over traditional regulatory issues. ... French is poised to face Democrat state Rep. Jon Rosenthal in the November general election. A Democrat has not held a seat on the railroad commission in decades.
{snip}
If he wins in November, he will join the three-commissioner panel presiding over the railroad commission, a century-old regulatory institution tasked with overseeing the state's oil and gas industry, an immense enterprise that produced nearly half of all U.S. oil last year.
A former Tarrant County GOP chairman, French espouses some of the most extreme views among Texas Republican officials, even as the party has pivoted further to the right in recent years. Earlier this year, French called on his party to more openly embrace Islamophobia and said the U.S. should deport 100 million people, nearly a third of the country's population and a number that suggests he wants to deport U.S. citizens.
He has drawn the ire of members of his own party for his unapologetically offensive posts on social media often using slurs to refer to people with mental disabilities and LGBTQ+ people. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on him to resign from his county chairmanship after French posted a social media poll asking whether Jews or Muslims were a bigger threat to America.
Patrick, Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, all endorsed his opponent.
{snip}
Carlos Nogueras Ramos
Permian Basin Reporter
Carlos Nogueras Ramos is a regional reporter based in Odessa. Carlos joined The Texas Tribune in 2023 as a corps member with Report for America. Carlos tells the stories of Texas from the vast energy-rich Permian Basin region. Before the Tribune, Carlos spent time in Philadelphia writing about local politics, including the city’s 100th mayoral election. A Spanish speaker, Carlos was one of the few Latino reporters on the campaign trail, covering the most expensive primary election to date in Philly. He is a proud Puerto Rico native, born and raised in Cayey. He studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston and the University of Puerto Rico.
carlos.nogueras@texastribune.org
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/05/27/texas-railroad-commission-republican-primary-runoff-wright-french/
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
I've had a few interactions with this man on X and he is one of the more openly virulent nativists out there, which is saying something. And he is currently leading for [an oil and gas industry] regulator position.
Robert Downen
@robertdownen.bsky.social
· 19h
Tonight Texas might get its first open Rhodesian candidate for statewide office.
A tweet by Bo French, who is currently running for Railroad Commission: "Long live the spirit of Rhodesia."
ALT
9:07 PM · May 26, 2026
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I've had a few interactions with this man on X and he is one of the more openly virulent nativists out there, which is saying something. And he is currently leading for a railroad regulator position.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2026-05-27T01:07:26.767Z
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Robert Downen
@robertdownen.bsky.social
Tonight Texas might get its first open Rhodesian candidate for statewide office.
A tweet by Bo French, who is currently running for Railroad Commission: "Long live the spirit of Rhodesia."
ALT
12:45 PM · May 26, 2026
******
Tonight Texas might get its first open Rhodesian candidate for statewide office.
— Robert Downen (@robertdownen.bsky.social) 2026-05-26T16:45:14.341Z
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Seth Rau
@sethrau.bsky.social
Oil and gas commissioner. Railroad commission doesn't regulate the railroads anymore
9:08 PM · May 26, 2026
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Oil and gas commissioner. Railroad commission doesn’t regulate the railroads anymore
— Seth Rau (@sethrau.bsky.social) 2026-05-27T01:08:47.984Z