Houston Chronicle Backs Dem for RRC
in Editorial that Goes for French Jugular
Texas General Election Polls
General Election Rankings
Capitol Inside
September 21, 2026
Democrat Jon Rosenthal's moved one step close to an upset for the ages when the Houston Chronicle endorsed his campaign for the Texas Raiload Commission and slammed GOP foe Bo French as a "cowardly bigot" in an editorial on Monday.
The Chron's editorial board praised the state representative from Houston as the "obvious choice": for the seat on the commission that regulates the oil and industry as a mechanical engineer who has "decades of experience" in the business. But the newspaper's plug for Rosenthal focused primarily on the former Tarrant County GOP chair who's the party's standard-bearer in the RRC battle this fall.
"Perhaps we should thank Bo French," the endorsement editorial began. "If this xenophobic, spineless carnival barker didn’t gleefully display his grotesque bigotry at every opportunity, voters would not be paying enough attention to the race for Texas Railroad Commission, one of the state’s most important down-ballot elections."
The RRC race had been ignored along with the other statewide contests on the Texas ballot below the governor's race this fall. But French muscled his way into the spotlight last weekend when he post a picture of Asian students at the University of Texas football game with Ohio State in a move that's been decried as racist by Democrats and fellow Republicans alike.
Rosenthal was listed as a 57 percent favorite on Monday on the prediction market Kalshi while Polymarket rated his probability of victory in November at 54 percent. Capitol Inside moved the Texas RRC race to the toss up column today in the rankings for the general election. While the U.S. Senate race is ranked here as leans Democrat, all of the other statewide contests are listed in the leans Republican column 44 days before the midterm vote.
The RRC race in Texas had been largely forgotten outside the energy industry that the three-member commission oversees. But French put the contest back on the map with the photo of Longhorn fans who aren't white and subsequent comments that doubled down on the point he'd been trying to make about his fear that UT had been taken over by foreigners and illiegal immigrants.
Outgoing U.S. Senator John Cornyn excoriated French for the behavior and announced that he would not be voting him this fall. Karl Rove penned a guest column for the Wall Street Journal last week with an endorsement for Rosenthal and an explanation on why he'd be voting for a Democrat for the first time in his life as a direct consequence of French's posts.
Other Republican leaders and lawmakers responded to the French antics by reaffirming their opposition to racism and bigotry. But none have pulled their support for the GOP nominee for the RRC - a sign they would rather have a racist as a railroad commissioner than a Democrat. Governor Greg Abbott continues to support the entire GOP ticket in Texas even though he warned before the primary runoff election that French would wreck the oil and gas industry if he own the job.
But a blue wave with tsunami potential is bubbling up on the midterm horizon in Texas - and the feeling here is that Democrats will run the table in the non-judicial statewide contests if Abbott loses to Democrat Gina Hinojosa in a race that the incumbent had run as a prohibitive favorite until the past few weeks when polls have found the challenger with a much better chance than anyone had imagined at the outset of summer.
While Democrat James Talarico has established himself as a clear but narrow favorite over the GOP's Ken Paxton in a fight for the U.S. Senate seat in Texas, the tentative projection here has been that the Republicans would prevail in all of the statewide races on the ballot below the fight for governor. But Rosenthal's unexpected surge in the competition for the RRC could have a reverse coattails effect and lift Democrats in statewide contests above it if French goes down.
Abbott's odds fell two points today on Kalshi to a record low of 77 percent on Monday after hovering over 90 percent for months. All of the statewide races on the Texas ballot are still ranked here as leans Republican except for the U.S. Senate and railroad commissioner fights in which Talarico and Rosenthal to a lesser degree appear to have the advantages heading into final six weeks before the general election.
more to come ...
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