One team has remained largely silent about Bo French's racist remarks: Texas ' oil and gas industry.

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The rabble-rousing candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission, Bo French, drew national attention this week by referring to a group of Longhorns players who were of South Asian descent in a prejudiced social media post, bringing the under-represented governmental body into the public’s eye.

The article elicited impassioned responses from the GOP, including U. S. Sen. John Cornyn and former Bush-era political adviser Karl Rove, who told a members-only pub in Austin that he was voting for the Democrat in the race. French, a far-right Republican, has a long record of incendiary website posts about LGBTQ+ people, including Jews, Muslims, Native Americans, and South Asian Americans.

The oil and gas industry, the one French would be tasked with governing, has mostly remained motionless since the discussion erupted, despite Republican leaders ‘ public criticism of French’s responses.

The Texas Tribune asked the country’s largest energy firms, including ExxonMobil, Chevron and Occidental Petroleum, about French’s post through media request forms, letters, and telephone calls. No one responded.

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Just days before his most recent posts on social media, French’s Political Action Committee, which represents the market in political concerns, endorsed him. The group eventually condemned those messages.

The Texas Oil and Gas Association Good Government Committee, the organization’s manager, said,” TXOGA PAC firmly and without reservation condemns the recent tweet posted by Bo French on X.” Respect is one of our company’s core beliefs.

French was never TXOGA’s first preferred candidate. Jim Wright received about$ 100, 000 in support from TXOGA in the springtime. Additionally, Exxon donated$ 20,000. Several of the company’s managers even donated tens of thousands of dollars. Wright received$ 10,000 each from Diamondback Energy’s PAC and Chevron People PAC.

First October’s next round of campaign financing reports will reveal whether oil companies have given French income.

French is” dangerous in so many different ways that the oil and natural gas industry does not want to be explicitly associated with him”, said Mark Jones, a political research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

European did not respond to comments on the article.

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Social scientists speculated that associating with French and his polarizing online attacks may threaten business operations and labor relations because the majority of the major oil and gas companies based in Texas conduct company in the Middle East and utilize South Asian workers, who have been frequent targets of French. And backing European in front of others might mean adhering to his beliefs.

” Committee efforts are employee-contributed money”, said Nancy Sims, a political scientist at the University of Houston. They must be aware of that, they say.

French policy recommendations are also ambiguous.

The Railroad Commission, one of the oldest authorities in Texas, has no role in immigration policy, governing the state’s universities or LGBTQ+ problems. Instead, the 135-year-old governmental body is in charge of numerous energy issues, ranging from pipelines and drilling to drilling and mining. The Railroad Commission was given the authority to authorize carbon capture injection beneath this season. Regulators handle inert and infant oil and gas wells, an expensive system endeavor, and they govern the underground treatment and flow of oil and gas wastewater, known as produced water. It has a half-billion dollar funds.

Almost half of the U.S. oil supply was provided by the Permian Basin in West Texas in 2025, which authorities said helped maintain the world’s stockpile, which helped stabilize the world’s stockpile driven by the Iran war.

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For decades, the economy has supported individuals — all Republicans — for business who align with its sights and policy goals. Firms have used their vast financial resources to attract applicants who have long been the target of criticism from observers and guardian organizations. A Democrat hasn’t occupied a seat at the Railroad Commission for centuries.

But French has complicated issues for the business. Has he frequently debatted these problems or made policy recommendations that he believes want improvement? No plan discussions, such as the removal of the public opinion time from the organization’s open meetings, were found in his social media, which is where French is most effective.

French, otherwise, often feedback on federal immigration policy and counts involving the LGBTQ+ area. He urged the government to evict Native Americans and demanded the imprisonment of 100 million people, or about a third of the population, at the March Conservative Political Action Conference.

He has not specified how he would carry out the policies French has suggested, such as directing funds the agency has spent on diversity initiatives to address infant oil and gas reservoirs.

Only recently has he changed the content on his campaign website to reflect new priorities, including lowering fuel and energy prices. He only makes the suggestion that great prices are the result of economic policy, not an explanation of how he would follow that goal.

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His business states,” When extreme environmentalists try to regulate Oil and Gas out of life, it is a direct risk to your house and home. ” Bo may push for plans that will develop oil and gas production, and make life more inexpensive in Texas”.

And despite promising to slash rules and start fossil fuel production, despite the fact that cutting has been at record highs for at least six times in a row, even under a Democratic leadership, he has yet to earn large oil over.

According to Kimi King, a professor of political science at the University of North Texas, “industry actors care less about ideological alignment on federal culture war issues than about governmental experience, predictability, and policy outcomes that are going to collapse under the agency’s jurisdiction.” ” That may be why they’re sort of clawing back a little bit”.

Fuel managers have given. This time, Miles Boldrick, a Midland executive and proprietor of Statewide Minerals Co., has donated tens of thousands of dollars. Luke Dunn, an executive at CrownQuest Operating and son of oil tycoon Tim Dunn, gave him at least$ 50, 000. Alex Williamson, who is alleged to be ANW Minerals ‘ president, has given at least$ 50,000.

Dunn, Boldrick, or Williamson could not be reached for telephone.

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Big oil and gas companies with large portfolios in Texas have yet to follow suit, like they did with Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright, who did make their support.

The Texas Freedom Fund for the Advancement of Justice, a PAC funded by oil tycoons Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, has donated nearly$ 500,000 in cash and spent$ 30,000 on ads, making up French’s main benefactor.

Rosenthal’s protracted journey to November

Researchers cautioned against likening a lack of support for French to a gift for Rosenthal, a former oil and gas engineer of more than two years and a four-term state representative in Houston.

Rosenthal’s campaign addresses issues the industry has had to deal with, such as underwater orphaned oil and gas wells and business wastewater injection. Oil and gas companies have contributed significantly to Texas, including a surplus of power and billions in taxes, according to him, and he has adopted a more reasonable approach.

” I don’t know how many people out there have ever met what I call a’ drill child drill ‘ Democrat, but I think that makes me distinct from some other people in my party”, he said. It provides an opportunity to show that and perhaps dispel some of the bad myths that surround our industry, according to the author. Additionally, it’s a chance for me to physically remove the negative storyline. That’s around Democrats maybe, where people just want to claim that Democrats want to kill the oil and gas industry”.

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That won’t lead to, or promise, market support, according to experts. Even though Rosenthal would be outclassed 2-1, Jones, the social scientist at the Baker Institute, claimed that if Rosenthal were elected, he may use his elevated position to raise concerns that might uneasy oil companies.

” The last thing the business wants is a wolf in the end, and that’s a Democrat on the Monorail Commission”, said Jones.

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Sep 17, 2026Hill Country Post

One team has remained largely silent about Bo French’s racist remarks: Texas ‘ oil and gas industry.

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