Who Stands Between Texas and a Fascist Railroad Commission?

On May 26, former Tarrant County GOP Chairman Bo French eked out a 1-point victory over incumbent Jim Wright in the Republican runoff for a seat on the state’s poorly named oil and gas regulatory agency: the Railroad Commission (RRC). As the Texas Observer has reported, French, a 56-year-old oil-industry nepo baby, received over half his primary campaign war chest from a political action committee funded by Christian nationalist oil magnate Tim Dunn and historically by hard-right oil baron Farris Wilks.

French has run perhaps the most far-right campaign of any major Texas GOP candidate in recent memory: He’s called for the denaturalization and deportation of 100 mil...