Fort Worth Republican Mayor Backs Dem
for RRC in Slap at Ex-GOP County Chair
Texas General Election Polls
General Election Rankings
Capitol Inside
October 25, 2026
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker joined a parade of prominent Texas Republicans who are breaking ranks with the GOP in statewide races on the midterm ballot when she issued an enthusiastic pitch on Sunday to Democrat Jon Rosenthal in the race for railroad commissioner.
The endorsement that Parker dished out to Rosenthal was rich in significance in light of the fact that the GOP nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission seat - Bo French - served as the Tarrant County Republican Party chairman until leaving the post so he could pursue the statewide post at the polls this year. Parker did not mention French by name in the plug for the Houston state representative on social media. But she got in a shot at the GOP RRC nominee nonetheless.
"Jon Rosenthal is the right choice for Texas Railroad Commissioner," Parker said. "Jon has the experience, proven leadership, and focus on what matters most to our state - smart regulation and policy in partnership with Texans and industry leaders. The Texas Railroad Commission is not a place for culture wars and bigotry - it’s the foundation of the Texas economy, and we cannot afford to hand it to the wrong leader. Vote for Jon Rosenthal."
Rosenthal, who's an engineer, rode a blue wave into the Texas House in the first midterm election on President Donald Trump's watch in 2018. Parker, an attorney, served as the chief of staff to the mayor and city council for several years before winning the mayor's job in 2021. While the mayoral position is elected on a nonpartisan basis, Parker has been an outspoken voice against political extremism.
Rosenthal and the Democrats' other statewide nominees all are hoping to ride James Talarico's coattails in the election eight days from now as the candidate who's leading the Democratic ticket in a fight with Republican Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat. Talarico is the only Democratic statewide contender who's been viewed as a slight favorite based on the polling and forecasts for the Texas vote.
But Rosenthal has the second best odds on the statewide ticket for the Democrats in Texas - thanks almost exclusively to the Republican opponent, his antics, rhetoric and views that are widely regarded as extreme by GOP standards here. French was accused of racism in early September after a social media post with a photo that showed Asian students in the grandstands at the University of Texas football game with Ohio State in Austin.
At a time when Orangebloods were celebrating a victory over the Buckeyes that cemented a number one national ranking, French contended that the Texas flagship campus was being overrun by foreigners and illegal immigrants. Most if not all of the students in the picture turned out to be American citizens. But French remained undaunted and unbowed by the backlash to his attention-grabbing posts.
But Parker is not the first big-name Republican to go public with plans to back Rosenthal at the polls on November 3. Longtime consultant Karl Rove - one of the leading architects of the GOP's rise to power in the Lone Star State - expressed his plans to vote for the Democrat in the RRC race in a guest editorial that was published in the Wall Street Journal on September 16.
Rove, who was George W. Bush's chief strategist and advisor in the White House, said it would be the first time that he'd voted for a Democrat in 30 years or more. Rove's intervention in the RRC piqued the wrath of President Donald Trump, who slammed the veteran consultant on Truth Social without mentioning French or attempt to defend him.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a lameduck since a loss to Ken Paxton in a primary runoff in the spring, announced that he would not vote for French in the election that's come up. But Cornyn didn't go as far as Rove - keeping his cards to his chest on whether he'd support Rosenthal or simply skip the railroad commissioner race.
Talarico has received a slew of endorsements from Republicans in the past few weeks. He scored endorsements from the former president's daughter, Barbara Bush, and his brother Neil Bush last week. Talarico's GOP supporters include former congressional member Adam Kinzinger, ex-Texas Supreme Court chief justice Tom Phillips and Steve Bartlett - a former Dallas mayor who served in Congressas well.
Talarico also has former Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, who's also a Republican, in his corner for the Texas Senate race. GOP State Rep. Charlie Geren of Fort Worth has appeared to be opposing Paxton in the Senate race while stopping short of endorsing Talarico for the seat.
Winning Tarrant County could be the key to victory in the Senate contest and the other statewide contests on the Texas midterm ballot. Tarrant was the only major Texas county that Trump carried in 2024 when he beat Democrat Kamala Harris there by 5 points with less than 52 percent of the vote.
Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by almost 9 points in Tarrant County in 2016, But Trump lost to Joe Biden in Tarrant County in 2020 when the Democrat beat him by two-tenths of one percentage point there en route to an eventual win nationwide. Democrat Beto O'Rourke beat U.S. Senator Ted Cruz by less than one point in Tarrant County in 2018 before Governor Greg Abbott won there by 4 points in 2022.
more to come ...
| 
