Fallout over Bo French's controversial social media post about UT Austin students

AUSTIN, Texas - The fallout continued on Monday from a controversial social media post from Bo French regarding college enrollment policies and immigrants. 

French and his opponent responded to the pushback.

Bo French comments on UT Austin fans

The backstory:

Shortly after UT’s victory on Saturday at DKR Stadium, the Longhorn Nation became a political football. An image from the student section was used by Railroad Commission candidate Bo French in a social media post.

French noted the racial make-up of those in the picture celebrating the win. He posted: "I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn't believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined."

French went on to say: "How many Americans have been displaced by foreigners."

By the numbers:

The tweet comes as the university’s total enrollment and incoming freshman class were the largest in its 142-year history.

According to the University, for the 2025-2026 academic year, students who are Texas residents make up 80.5% of all students while another 10.2% are from outside of Texas, representing 48 other states.

What they're saying:

Bo French, a north Texas republican, is known for making volatile social media posts, but this time there's bi-partisan pushback, including comments from John Cornyn, House Speaker Dustin Burrows and Governor Abbott. 

On Monday morning, on the Mark Davis radio show, French’s attempt at damage control involved doubling down on why he made the post.

"The bigger conversation is, are we going to have policies to prioritize Americans and the exceptionalism that I believe Americans have, or are we going to have policies that prioritize foreigners? And I think most people in the America First movement think we ought to be prioritizing Americans," said French on the Mark Davis radio show.

French, on the radio show, went on to dismiss party members attacking him. French described some as "less conservative people in Texas."

State Rep. Jon Rosenthal speaks on French's comments

The other side:

State Rep. Jon Rosenthal, French’s Democratic opponent in the Railroad Commission race, was in Austin on Monday for a State House committee meeting. During a break, Rosenthal spoke to reporters and said French is a "wacko."

"So first, I call BS on the framing. And that's garbage," said Rep. Rosenthal.

Rosenthal urged UT Austin's student body not to be discouraged by what was said.

"So, my message is, there is a place in Texas for everybody, and when we talk about our industry, oil and gas, we have people from all walks of life, from all corners of the planet, from everywhere. And when you work in the field, when you're working in this industry, nobody cares what your party affiliation is, nobody cares about your religion or your race. We want to make money, we want to bring energy to the state and to the nation and to the world. And everybody wants to get home safely at the end of the day," said Rosenthal.

Dig deeper:

The tweet captured attention on both sides of the aisle.

Democratic senate nominee James Talarico says racism has no place in Texas. His opponent, Ken Paxton, echoed the same idea, saying he condemns racism in all its forms.

With early voting starting in about a month, it’s unclear if French’s post will have any lingering political fallout. But the timing of the controversy is problematic for the Texas GOP, according to SMU political analyst Matthew Wilson.

"The danger here is that French potentially puts himself into the Paxton category. That is someone lagging behind the rest of the ticket because of personal controversy. I think the other issue is that it puts Republicans like Greg Abbott in a bind because they want to distance themselves from these comments without openly calling out French and creating a feud within the party. So, it's a tricky situation for the other Republicans running for statewide office," said Wilson. 

UT Austin students react to post

What they're saying:

"People were like, I can't believe they would say something like that," said UT student Michael Scheper.

"After the game, everybody was celebrating, and then I scrolled up and saw it, and it just broke me in the wrong way," said Max Elko, a UT student.

"I genuinely feel so much smarter being surrounded by so many different types of people, no matter what continent, country, state, whatever. There are so many people, and it's so fun and the best thing is we're all longhorns," said UT student Rose Dorsey.

"When I see that picture, I'm like, those are just the happiest smiling faces, and like, everyone, all of my friends were screaming with them, everyone was feeling that ambition, everyone was filling that spirit together. And I think that's the thing we should be focusing on is that togetherness and that cool amazing energy that we felt," said Dorsey.

Some Longhorns said they’d like action.

"I mean he's a political figure, and he's just commenting on something negative about UT and just the diverse population that's there. I really think that's damaging. So, I think you should take it down," said student Ivy Keane-Dawes.

"I think he should apologize for the tweet. I think that should be the best thing. Rather than pretending that he didn't make the mistake, I think you should apologize for the mistake and just learn from it," said Dorsey.