Texas State Senator Royce West (D-Dallas) released the following statement sharply condemning the recent racist and xenophobic social media comments made by Republican Railroad Commission nominee Bo French, who targeted University of Texas at Austin students of South Asian descent celebrating a Longhorns football victory:
“What we have witnessed from Bo French is not just garden-variety political grandstanding—it is vile, unadulterated racism. To take a picture of young Texans enjoying a college football game, baselessly label them ‘foreigners,’ and declare them a ‘problem’ simply because of the color of their skin is sickening and entirely unbecoming of anyone seeking public office in our great state.
Let’s call this what it is: an attack on the fabric of Texas. These students are our neighbors, our scholars, our future community leaders. They belong here just as much as anyone else. For a candidate for statewide office to publicly demean and otherize young Texans based on racial animus is disgraceful.
As we approach a critical election cycle this November, Texans face a stark and defining choice. This extremism is the logical endpoint of years of manufactured division, attacks on higher education, and the systematic dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion across our institutions. When fringe candidates feel emboldened to spew open bigotry and double down when confronted, it poisons our civic discourse and threatens the economic and cultural future of the Texas Miracle.
Texans deserve leaders who foster unity, protect our communities, and respect every student who chooses to learn and build their future in our state. We cannot afford to normalize this poison. I call on all Texans—regardless of party—to reject this hatred at the ballot box this November and show that bigotry has no home in Texas.”
