Texas Senate candidates Ken Paxton and James Talarico sparred on Sunday afternoon after multiple Republican lawmakers in the state denounced a racially charged social media post made by a candidate for state office.
Bo French, the Republican nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission, was quickly denounced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and multiple state lawmakers on Sunday after he posted a picture of seemingly Asian American 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 post quickly gained millions of views before Cornyn, who lost to Paxton in the Republican primary, called on other lawmakers to condemn the post.
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows followed suit by saying one “can oppose immigration policy without demeaning people because of their race or ethnicity” and that the post “crossed the line” before calling for French to delete it. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) said the image “actually shows a way that Texans can unite” and “that is not my message,” according to Politico. He also said: “That doesn’t mean that Texas cannot also lead in having the toughest immigration laws of any state in America and freezing H1B visas at our universities.”
Talarico thanked Cornyn for denouncing French’s post, saying that “racism has no place in Texas” and asking Paxton to respond. Talarico’s Republican opponent did so hours later by pivoting to statements Talarico has allegedly made in the past about race.
“I condemn racism in all its forms,” Paxton said. “Including James Talarico saying white men are America’s top terror threat and that he prays to overcome his own ‘whiteness,’ whatever that means. Only one person in this race has a history of dividing Texas by race, and it’s James Talarico. I will continue to focus on uniting our State and bringing together the broadest possible coalition to fight for Texas, our values, and our families.”
The race between Paxton and Talarico was in the spotlight earlier in the week at the Republican National Committee’s first-of-its-kind midterm elections convention in Dallas. Talarico’s strong polling in a state that has long functioned as a Republican stronghold has thrust the race into the national conversation.
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Republican State Rep. Jared Patterson said the post was “racist” and “there’s nothing conservative about looking at a crowd of young Texans at a college football game, seeing the color of their skin, and declaring they are a ‘problem.’”
“I spent 25 years as an oil and gas engineer,” French’s opponent Jon Rosenthal said in response to his opponent’s viral moment. “Bo French spent Sunday morning sorting our student section by skin color. A man who can’t tell a Longhorn from a foreigner has no business regulating anything in [Texas].”