Outgoing Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn drew a fierce response from MAGA after declaring that he wouldn’t support Republican Bo French in the Texas Railroad Commission race. Cornyn called French an “embarrassment” and suggested he might leave the race blank rather than vote for his party’s nominee. He later promoted the prospect of Democrats defeating French if Republicans didn’t “clean house.” Wall Street Mav responded by declaring, “When a RINO reveals that he’s a Democrat now.”
French is the Republican nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission, the state agency responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry. He’s running against Democratic state Rep. Jon Rosenthal of Houston in the November election. Cornyn began publicly attacking French after the Republican candidate posted a photograph of students celebrating a University of Texas football victory. The argument quickly expanded into another fight between Texas’ Republican establishment and the party’s MAGA base.
French’s original post featured a group of predominantly South Asian students celebrating the Longhorns’ comeback victory over Ohio State. “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this,” French wrote. “I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” French later argued that Americans were being displaced by foreigners, while several students appearing in the photograph said they were American citizens.
Cornyn escalated the dispute on Thursday, September 17th, by announcing that he wouldn’t vote for French. “He’s an embarrassment to the Republican Party, and he’s going to drag the whole ticket down because of his racist comments,” Cornyn said, according to the Texas Tribune. When asked whether he would support Rosenthal instead, Cornyn stopped short of endorsing the Democrat. “I may just leave it blank,” he said.
The Texas senator had been attacking French publicly for several days before revealing that he would withhold his vote. “Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized,” Cornyn wrote in one post. “This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad.” Cornyn also reposted an opinion column from Bush-era Republican strategist Karl Rove announcing that he would vote for Rosenthal.
Cornyn shared the report about his refusal to support French and wrote, “If Republicans won’t clean house, Democrats will.” Wall Street Mav immediately fired back, “When a RINO reveals that he’s a Democrat now.” The post treated Cornyn’s refusal to support the Republican nominee as the latest evidence of his break with the party’s MAGA voters. It also rejected Cornyn’s suggestion that a Democratic victory would amount to cleaning up the Republican Party.
French refused to delete his original post or apologize after Cornyn and other Republican officials condemned it. He accused “the radical left and their allies” of attacking him and used the controversy to encourage supporters to donate to his campaign. French also dismissed Republican critics such as Cornyn as “less conservative people.” Cornyn responded by accusing French of doubling down and attempting to raise money from the controversy.
"*" indicates required fields
The pro-French counterattack quickly became a pile-on. French called Cornyn and his allies “America Last losers,” while Texas state Rep. Andy Hopper dismissed Cornyn as a “smug globalist” who “lost by 28 points.” In Cornyn’s replies, Chandler Langevin wrote, “We are cleaning house,” Konrad Curze told him, “We are cleaning house, John,” and BowTiedRanger added, “Republicans started cleaning house by voting you out.” Another commenter predicted that Cornyn’s move would “galvanize people to Paxton,” warning, “The voters will not tolerate those who knife their own in public.”
Featured image credit: Chief National Guard Bureau from USA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons