Bo French is no stranger to controversy. The chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party is well-known for his divisive social media antics. Last week, he added to a long line of distasteful posts with a poll on X that reeks of anti-Islamic and antisemitic sentiment.
The poll asked “Who is a bigger threat to America?” It offered two response options: Jews or Muslims.
The post caught the attention of prominent Republicans such as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has called for his resignation. We agree it’s time for French to step down.
A cursory review of the party boss’s X page shows this behavior is hardly out of the ordinary. He said in a post last month that “a few well placed snipers would end violent protests in two seconds.” Last year, a series of posts using slurs for gay people and those with disabilities earned condemnations from a handful of other Republicans, the Texas Tribune reported.
Opinion
Divisiveness for its own sake is French’s game, and Tarrant County voters deserve better than that.
Alongside Patrick, other elected officials who have condemned French’s post include: U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, U.S. Reps. Jake Ellzey and Craig Goldman, state Sen. Phil King, state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker and Dallas City Council Member Cara Mendelsohn.
These people are not the liberal or woke. Most are strongly conservative themselves.
French said on X that he isn’t resigning. He said “some people clearly misunderstood the intent,” this newspaper reported. “The poll has been deleted. I regret posting it.” French condemned antisemitism and said he has always supported Israel.
He can defend the post however he’d like. Nothing can change the fact that it was a wide-ranging attack on Jewish and Muslim people. Pretending otherwise is delusional.
The calls for French’s resignation coming out of the Republican Party are welcome, but the GOP needs to do a much better job of keeping similarly hateful influences out.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bradford William Davis wrote an insightful op-ed this week examining how the GOP has been quick to attack French while continuing to support others like him.
It strikes us as reminiscent of how in 2023, self-proclaimed neo-Nazi and political commentator Nick Fuentes visited the offices of powerful Republican strategist Jonathan Stickland’s firm Pale Horse Strategies.
Not long after, the Texas Republican Party’s executive committee voted down a clause in a pro-Israel resolution that would have barred “the party from associating with known Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers.”
It shouldn’t be difficult for our political parties to distance themselves from people like French; it should be imperative. His behavior is exactly the kind of ineffectual, divisive nonsense that shouldn’t be allowed to fester. Our political parties need adults at the helm, and French doesn’t fit that bill.