Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: Bo French should resign as Tarrant GOP chair over ‘bigotry’
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and a growing chorus of Republican state and local leaders are now calling on Tarrant County GOP chair Bo French to resign over a post he made on X that polled his followers on whether Jews or Muslims were the “bigger threat to America.”
“Bo French’s words do not reflect my values nor the values of the Republican Party. Antisemitism and religious bigotry have no place in Texas,” Patrick posted on X on Friday evening. “I am calling for the immediate resignation and replacement of @BoFrenchTX as @tarrantgop Chairman.”
French responded on X that he has no intentions of resigning his party leadership of the largest Republican urban county in America. He deleted the poll around 7:30 p.m. and expressed regret, saying he was “misunderstood.” That appears to have done little to fend off the calls for his ouster.
Patrick’s statement is an extraordinary public rebuke of French, who has made many inflammatory comments on social media — most of them without political consequence — since the county’s Republican Party elected him chair in fall 2023. Patrick is one of the most powerful Republicans in Texas state politics, and his call on French to resign will likely give the green light to other Republican critics of French who have remained silent in the past.
It didn’t take long for that to start happening Friday night.
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker joined in around 8 p.m. with a social media post saying her party needs new leadership. “Too many examples of @BoFrenchTX’s bigotry and hate. This is one of the most egregious examples. Go fishing on X for some of the other prime examples,” she wrote. “New leadership with @tarrantgop is a given. Clear the deck,” Parker said.
Texas Sen. Phil King of Weatherford, Sen. Brian Birdwell of Granbury, Sen. Tan Parker of Flower Mound and Rep. Craig Goldman of Fort Worth, all Republicans, said French must go.
“There are too many in our party who work too hard to support good people trying to do good things,” Goldman posted on social media. “As a 5th generation Jewish American I know what anti-semitism looks like.”
King called French’s behavior a “pattern of reckless, incendiary rhetoric,” adding “we can do better.”
And Rep. Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake went even further, posting: “No one has done more damage to Tarrant County Republicans than Bo ‘all I do is tweet and hate’ French. His endless vitriol has dragged us down long enough. If he had an ounce of sense — or shame — he’d resign before he is thrown out.”
Tarrant County Commissioner Manny Ramirez stopped short of calling for French’s ouster but said the party’s focus should be on “growing our majority, welcoming new voters, and promoting ... conservative principles.” He added, “There is no place in our movement for hateful rhetoric.”
Konni Burton, a former state senator and Tarrant County tea party leader, reposted Ramirez’s statement.
At least one Tarrant County precinct chair has said French should “go back to wherever he came from,” telling the Star-Telegram that French “cannot hide his bigotry this time.” If the party doesn’t eject him, it has “lost the moral authority to govern.”
‘I regret posting it’
French posted a poll Wednesday for his 28,000 followers on X to vote on whether they believed “Jews” or “Muslims” were the “bigger threat to America.”
After deleting the post Friday, he wrote:
“Earlier this week I posted a poll following the election of an Islamic communist while I am also working to expose the radical islamists in Tarrant County,” French wrote. “Some people clearly misunderstood the intent. The poll has been deleted. I regret posting it. Let me be clear: antisemitism has no place in the Republican Party, and if you disagree with me, get out. We respect the free exercise of religion and we welcome anyone of good faith who shares our conservative values and respects the Constitution.”
In his response to Patrick, French wrote that he respects the lieutenant governor but “I strongly disagree with his assessment of this situation. I have always strongly supported Israel.”
Before Patrick’s statement, French responded to questions from the Star-Telegram by saying “there is no greater threat than Islamic radicals.” After blaming former President Joe Biden for letting “20 million illegal aliens” and questioning how many of them were “jihadists,” he criticized people who accused him of antisemitism and said they need to “wake up and look at the real threat.”
“While I appreciate CAIR denouncing me, America won’t rest until we rid our communities of an ideology that wants to conquer us,” he said.
CAIR is the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Earlier in the day, the Texas chapter of CAIR called French’s post “dangerous rhetoric that stigmatizes entire communities based on their faith and promotes hatred and religious intolerance.”
In a Star-Telegram interview Friday afternoon, Brian Zimmerman, a rabbi at Beth-El Congregation in Fort Worth, condemned French’s poll, saying he hopes “any decent person of any faith, including Christians” would do the same.
“People are divided and in a great deal of pain and afraid for their safety, and we know we’ve seen it proven now that these words lead to violence,” he said in a phone interview Friday.
Zimmerman called for French to be removed from the head of the Tarrant County Republican Party if he didn’t delete the post and apologize.
“If he believes that the many hard-working Jews and Muslims who have helped build this state are a threat, then he is not fit to serve,” he said, and also called on the Texas GOP to speak out against the rhetoric in the post.
The Republican Party of Texas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘It fuels suspicion and division’
The language used in French’s poll is “not only offensive — it’s dangerous,” said CAIR-Texas board member John Floyd.
“It fuels suspicion and division during a time when both Jewish and Muslim communities are facing heightened threats across the country,” he said. “We categorically reject this hate and fearmongering and call on elected leaders to cease normalizing bigotry.”
Shaimaa Zayan, an operations manager with the organization, said that framing the two groups as potential threats increases antisemitism and Islamophobia at a time when both are on the rise in the county.
“This shameful and irresponsible poll is a blatant act of antisemitic and Islamophobic bigotry,” she said. “We expect elected officials and politicians to foster unity and lead with wisdom, not to promote suspicion and division.”
French’s post also garnered condemnation from other users on X.
“As a Jew who has spent his entire adult life in Texas, GOP politics, and conservative activism, I’ve been blessed to know SO many faithful walkers on the path of Jesus who would be nauseated by this bigotry,” said a person with the handle @WacoYid. “I hope someone like them can lead you to repent.”
Another user going by the handle @evan7257 said, “I remember when explicit antisemitism like this was frowned upon in Texas politics.”
Others expressed their criticism by proposing additional candidates they felt should have been options in the poll, groups like “Christian nationalists,” “evangelicals” and “MAGA.”
Some commenters did not take umbrage with French’s language, preferring instead to make a case for which of the two options they supported.
French used a slur for people with intellectual disability at least twice in responding to comments on his poll.
As of Friday afternoon, the poll had garnered just under 900 votes and had been viewed almost 19,000 times.
In October 2024, French posted a poll on X asking: “If you believe Kamala’s policies are better for Americans than Trump’s policies, you are: Ignorant; a liar; retarded; gay.”
He took down the poll after several area Republicans criticized him for it.
This story was originally published June 27, 2025 at 4:49 PM.
