GOP consultant and former Bush adviser Karl Rove explained his decision to vote for the Democrat running against Bo French, the Republican nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission, marking the second time he has voted for a Democrat.
Rove had called French a “bigot” days earlier for posting a picture of seemingly Asian American and Hispanic students celebrating in the stands of the University of Texas at Austin’s football stadium during Saturday night’s victory against Ohio State. French said he had “heard UT graduation this year looked like this,” and that “the problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.”
The Texas Republican had expressed that decision behind closed doors but made his message clear in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal. In his piece, Rove said French represents a growing number of “bigoted advocates of ‘Heritage America.’”
“These people are diminishing the Republican Party, not building it,” Rove said. “I’ll have no part of it. This November, I’ll vote for only the second Democrat in my life. The first was Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock in 1994, because I thought he would work with Republicans. The second will be Mr. French’s opponent, Jon Rosenthal. The GOP’s stables need a cleaning. This is a good place to start.”
Rove said French’s choosing to mark UT’s win with “raw, uncut bigotry” is just one example in which he has made racist remarks against Hispanics.
French has made controversial comments about women and non-Christians as well, according to Rove. The former Bush adviser said that while serving as Tarrant County Republican chairman, French posted a poll to X asking if “Jews” or “Muslims” were a bigger threat to America. The post was met with fierce opposition from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who called for French to resign.
Rove recalled his move to Texas in the 1970s, saying, “The state was so blue that you could almost hold a GOP state convention in a phone booth.”
“Republicans turned Texas red by fielding candidates who understood the strength of our state’s diverse population and welcomed voters who shared our conservative values,” Rove said.
Following the fallout of French’s social media post, Rove spoke to colleagues at a closed-door meeting about French’s post, reported by the Texas Tribune.
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President Donald Trump then took to Truth Social to scrutinize Rove, calling him a “Republican in name only.” Rove had appeared on Fox News before Trump’s post and broke down the president’s plan to hand out $5,000 dividends to adult Americans if the GOP maintains its majority in Congress.
“Karl Rove is so bad for the Republican Party, and completely wrong so often. He suffers from a major case of Trump Derangement Syndrome primarily because, for almost 10 years, I beat back and won against so many of the people and things that he wanted and espoused,” Trump said. “Why does FoxNews and the WSJ keep his RINO Voice alive. The guy is a stone cold loser!”
