By Sarah Bahari
Staff writer
Dallas Morning News
The leader of the Tarrant County Republican Party is targeting a Muslim state House member this week, one month after some of the state’s top Republicans called for his resignation over similar online conduct.
Tarrant County GOP Chairman Bo French asked federal officials to denaturalize and deport state House Rep. Salman Bhojani, who was born in Pakistan and is a U.S. citizen. In multiple posts this week on X, French called Bhojani an “anti-American democrat” and said he is trying to “further jihad.”
Bhojani, a Democrat who represents parts of Arlington, Euless and Bedford, was elected in 2022 as the first Muslim and first South Asian state representative in Texas. In a phone interview Thursday with The Dallas Morning News, Bhojani said French does not represent Texans he knows.
“It’s unfortunate people like Bo French are engaging in this sort of red meat politics for their own political gain,” he said. “These are just very extreme ideological folks who are out there to give hate.”
This is not the first time Bhojani has faced attacks over his religion. While running for Euless City Council in 2018, then Rep. Jonathan Stickland told voters that Bhojani is “a Muslim, lawyer, and a lifelong Democrat” who would bring “massive changes” to the suburb.
French, who has served as the head of the Tarrant County Republican Party since 2023, is known for his confrontational style on social media, where he frequently posts conspiracy theories and attacks on political opponents. French did not respond to two emails seeking comment Thursday from The News.
In June, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, U.S. Rep. Craig Goldman and other Republicans called for French’s resignation after he posted a poll asking whether Muslims or Jews posed the “bigger threat to America.”
“Bo French’s words do not reflect my values nor the values of the Republican Party,” Patrick wrote on X at the time. “Antisemitism and religious bigotry have no place in Texas.”
French deleted the poll but said he would not resign.
This week, French accused Bhojani of lying about being in Pakistan, where the lawmaker traveled earlier this month for a family medical emergency. Bhojani and Texas Democrats later shared photos of his passport stamp and boarding pass with reporters. On Monday, Bhojani said his aunt’s condition was improving and that he was returning to the U.S., where he would join other House Democrats in Chicago.
More than 50 House Democrats left the state to block a Republican redistricting plan that seeks to flip five U.S. House seats from Democratic to Republican control.
Bhojani said he was disappointed that French’s comments about Islam have not spurred the same calls for resignation that his previous post mentioning the Jewish faith.
“As elected officials, we should be treating every Texan the same regardless of their religion or background,” he said. “We should have equality.”
French has also published addresses online that he said belonged to Bhojani, who said his family is receiving threats. Bhojani said he has hired private security for his parents, wife and children as threats against public officials grow. The recent assassination of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in their home in Minnesota has weighed heavily on him, he said.
“I’m an elected official, but my family did not sign up for this,” he said. “I hope people understand that threats online can manifest in physical violence.”
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
