Why GOP leaders turned on Tarrant chair: It was more than his hateful post | Opinion

We’ll never know for certain if Bo French’s infamous recent online post was intended to be antisemitic. The Tarrant County Republican Party chairman, whose poll asking whether Jews or Muslims were the bigger threat to the nation prompted local and state GOP elected officials to demand his resignation, pulled the post down and said he was making a point about radical Islam.

We do know that it was crude, an appeal to the worst kind of online trolls and the Islamophobic. It was also one of French’s milder offenses on X (formerly Twitter) in the 20 months that he’s led the local party.

So, why did this one, unlike his casual use of slurs for gay people and those with disabilities, draw rebukes from so many corners — most notably Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is often aligned with French’s hard-right politics?

It points to a split in the party that goes way beyond disagreements on issues such as taxes, immigration or foreign policy. It’s popular to paint one side as more aligned with President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. But it’s really more about style and roles: primarily who’s responsible for winning elections and those who don’t have to behave as if they’re responsible for anything.

French and his ilk are in it to gain online clout, raise money, troll the liberals and compete for who can best emulate Trump’s chest-thumping id. These are not people who could win office in a general election (and perhaps not even in a primary with voters beyond their core believers). They’ve taken over the local Republican Party organization, chased out opponents and changed the role of parties to something they were never meant to be — to the detriment of our political climate and governance.

The result is that elected officials and candidates often have to bypass the party and set different priorities.

There’s a version of this among Democrats as well, at least nationally. But in Texas, their irrelevance is baked in, and all the battles that matter are in the GOP.

What political parties are supposed to do

The function of parties has been to register and turn out voters, raise money, recruit and assist candidates, and take on the thankless tasks that make elections work. In the 1980s and ‘90s, scores of Republican soldiers whose names won’t go down in history did that work in Texas, eventually building the statewide majority now entering its fourth decade.

The work is not always fun, though, and it certainly doesn’t get you invited on Newsmax. So, French, and others like him, have simply changed the roles to something that more suits their taste.

The most damaging part is the rigorous enforcement of purity tests. The parties increasingly focus more on keeping their own elected officials in line than working to win broad, durable majorities. That was clear in the reaction to Patrick’s call for French’s resignation. Say what you will about Patrick (and we’ve said plenty), but Republicans now saying he’s not “conservative” enough or a big enough “fighter” aren’t after electoral or policy victories.

As a result, when they do try to influence elections, it can backfire. The Tarrant and Texas parties took the unusual (until now) step of endorsing candidates in selected municipal elections this year, races that are nominally nonpartisan. Every one of the Tarrant party’s chosen candidates running in the county’s three largest cities lost.

How far off track does a Republican group have to be to lose all the big races in, as they constantly remind us, the most important large red county in the state, perhaps the nation?

With eight months until primaries for the biggest statewide offices, for most seats in the Legislature and for top county positions, the people who actually care about winning those elections have choices to make. The sooner they distance from radioactive partisans like French, the better the chance they can appeal to the majority of Texans: conservatives who like Republican governance but not wild-eyed crusades.

Yes, Bo French should resign over his hateful poll

That’s the answer to the question we initially posed. Sure, French should step down, or other county party leaders should oust him. But that was true before his poll. So why are other Republicans saying it now? Because the people who step up to take responsibility for winning have to get to work.

Meanwhile, activists continue to snipe at proven winners like Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. John Cornyn. A telling detail preceded French’s caustic X poll. The chairman told a Star-Telegram reporter that he hadn’t interacted with Sen. Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills, who recently resigned to become interim comptroller and to run for the statewide office, in more than a year.

In other words, a state senator who handily won four straight terms and has ambition for higher office decided that dealing with the county party — his own party! — wasn’t worth the hassle.

It creates a cycle. Without influence over officeholders, party officials have little to do but indulge the worst online nuttery. That drives elected officials further away. And on and on, until the local chairman embraces hate so often that it goes unremarked upon until vital points on the electoral calendar.

It’s like the last part of the classic film “12 Angry Men.” One by one, the jurors realize the weakness of the case before them and switch to “not guilty” votes until a couple of angry holdouts are screaming into the void and no one’s listening.

For the sake of sanity in Texas and Tarrant politics, the credits can’t roll soon enough.

This story was originally published July 2, 2025 at 10:02 AM.