Bo French Called for Public Executions of Political Opponents

Bo French is running to lead a powerful Texas state agency, and he has called for the public execution of Democratic leaders. That is not a metaphor. It is not campaign color. It is a thing he wrote, more than once, on a platform millions of people use every day.

I read the report and felt my stomach drop. Not because I am surprised that politicians say ugly things. I am not. It is because this kind of talk invites real harm. Words like that do not stay on a screen. They travel. They land in places we cannot control.

A CNN investigation found that French, the Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, used his X account over several years to call for public executions of political opponents. The posts included former President Barack Obama and Democratic Senator Adam Schiff. Some of the posts are now deleted. The report says at least five removed posts from February 2025 invoked hangings, gallows, or public executions. In 2020, he called for the death penalty for people he described as “Obama conspirators” and used the hashtag #HangEmHigh.

French is not a fringe voice in Texas politics. He has held leadership roles inside the state party. He is running statewide this fall. That gives his words weight. It also means voters are being asked to trust him with real power over the oil and gas industry, one of the biggest parts of the Texas economy.

This is not his first controversy. In September 2026, French posted a photo of South Asian students at a University of Texas football game and wrote that it showed “how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners.” The post drew swift condemnation from Democrats and from Republicans, including Senator John Cornyn, who called him “an embarrassment to the Republican Party.” House Speaker Dustin Burrows asked him to delete the post for “demeaning people because of their race or ethnicity.” French defended the remarks on a conservative radio show and said he was criticizing university admissions and hiring policies.

I keep coming back to the execution posts. They are older than the football post, but they are not ancient history. The most recent ones are from this year. That matters. It means this is not a young man’s mistake he has outgrown. It is a pattern that continued while he was seeking higher office.

Some of his own party has turned against him. Karl Rove said he would vote for French’s Democratic opponent, Jon Rosenthal. That is not a small thing in a Republican primary state. But other top Texas Republicans, including Governor Greg Abbott and Senate nominee Ken Paxton, have not condemned him over the execution posts, even as they have faced pressure to do so.

I am not writing this to tell anyone how to vote. I am writing it because the bar for public office should be simple. Do not call for the killing of your opponents. Do not do it once. Do not do it five times. Do not do it while asking for a job that puts you in charge of billions of dollars in industry and gives you a bigger platform.

There is a separate question about whether these posts constitute a credible threat. Law enforcement will make that call if they need to. My worry is not legal. It is human. When a candidate talks like this, it tells people who are already angry that violence is an acceptable tool. It tells people who are already scared that they are not safe. That is a cost we all pay, even if nothing physical ever happens.

French has a history of racist, antisemitic, homophobic, ableist, and anti-trans comments on social media, according to reporting that reviewed years of his posts. He has questioned whether Democrats were “retarted” or “gay,” polled followers on whether Muslims or Jews posed a bigger threat to America, and urged the federal government to deport a Democratic state lawmaker born in Pakistan. He has also asserted that Islam should be banned and claimed childless women were “selfish” and “responsible for the demise of our culture.”

I do not think any of this is beyond repair for a person. People can change. But change requires more than deleting posts after a reporter calls. It requires saying clearly that the old view was wrong and will not guide your conduct in office. I have not seen that from French. What I have seen is doubling down, deflection, and a refusal to treat the harm as real.

Democratic leaders in Texas have condemned the posts and warned that this kind of rhetoric endangers civil discourse. They are right. But this is not only a Democratic problem. It is a Texas problem. It is an American problem. When one major party tolerates a candidate who talks like this, it shifts the center of what is thinkable for everyone.

I started this piece angry. I am still angry. But I am also tired. Tired of treating the unthinkable as a normal part of the news cycle. Tired of explaining why calling for executions is not just “strong language.” The fix is not complicated. We can decide, together, that this is not acceptable. We can say it out loud. We can vote like it matters.