Bo French, Patriot Mobile executive say Muslims want to overthrow Texas
A panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference discussed the threat of an Islamic takeover in Texas and the nation, saying all Muslims should be deported.
Moderator and media personality Carl Higbie said Islam is being masked as a religion, but it is a dangerous ideology.
Bo French, a candidate for railroad commissioner, said the solution is not only to ban sharia law, halal and the call to prayer, “but more importantly, we have to send them all home.”
“They are here because they know that if they can infiltrate Texas and conquer Texas, then what’s going to happen? They’re going to be able to control the United States,” French said. “That’s a pathway to the United States. So that’s why we’re a target, and that’s why Texans are waking up and understand that this is a real threat and we need to stop it.”
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, sharia — meaning the correct path in Arabic — refers to the divine counsel that Muslims follow to be close to God and live moral lives. Most of the Muslim majority countries have laws referencing sharia. Some countries have laws administering what critics believe are cruel punishments or place undue restrictions on women and minorities. But people also misunderstand sharia and how it is applied, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
French, the former chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party, has run his campaign on limiting regulations, ending the Islamic invasion of Texas and removing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the railroad commission.
He will face incumbent Jim Wright in a May 26 runoff to become the Republican nominee on the Nov. 3 ballot for the state regulatory body for oil and gas.
French said he was one of the first politicians to talk about the threat of Islam, which has since become a larger issue in the Republican Party. French said Muslims come into communities in droves under the disguise of peace.
Higbie said in response, “But the problem is, though, it’s not that people are Islamophobic. The leading cause of Islamophobia is that Muslims keep trying to blow people up.”
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said it’s shameful to see Republicans spew such hate and be rewarded by their party rather than repudiated.
CAIR Operations Manager Shaimaa Zayan said Muslims come to Texas for a variety of reasons, but infiltration and control of the nation are not among them.
“The American Muslim community is the most racially and ethnically diverse of any faith group in the U.S.” Zayan said. “They come from a wide range of backgrounds, cultures, and interpretations of their faith. They make decisions that align with their individual or family lifestyles, aspirations, and growth. Portraying their choices as driven by a single, malicious motive is what we call a “conspiracy theory.”
Later in the panel Higbie said the word “Islamophobia” implies fear, but that’s not the case for Texans.
Jenny Story, COO Patriot Mobile, which calls itself a “Christian conservative wireless provider,” said the Grapevine-based company hosted an event in January discussing the threat of Islam in Texas. She said many people were left saying “‘You know what, maybe I am Islamophobic.’”
“It gave a lot of people courage to basically get together and since then, we’ve been meeting probably every month,” Story said. “There’s a large group of organizations’ leaders that are getting together to say, ‘You know, what can we do in Texas to take the state back and make sure that Texas isn’t sharia or Islam?’”
Shortly after the “Don’t Sharia My Texas” panel, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott came to the CPAC main stage and spoke about the state law banning sharia compounds like EPIC city northeast of Dallas.
This story was originally published March 27, 2026 at 12:57 PM.