Rosenthal Trails French by 1 Point in Texas Rail Race as GOP Controversies Upend 2026 Contest
Updated
Updated · POLITICO · Oct 13
Rosenthal Trails French by 1 Point in Texas Rail Race as GOP Controversies Upend 2026 Contest
3 articles · Updated · POLITICO · Oct 13
Summary
45% to 44% — a late-September poll put Democrat Jon Rosenthal within 1 point of Republican Bo French in the Texas Railroad Commission race, an unusually tight statewide contest in a state Republicans have dominated for decades.
French’s campaign has been rattled by inflammatory posts, including a September message targeting South Asian students and earlier deleted accounts that allegedly called for Barack Obama and other Democrats to be publicly executed.
Rosenthal, an oil-field engineer and state lawmaker, is using that opening to court rural and energy-industry voters with a pro-production message focused on unplugged wells, wastewater and bigger agency budgets.
$488,000 in fundraising from July to late September helped Rosenthal narrow the gap after French’s controversies, though French still entered the final month with more cash on hand — about $530,000 to $378,000.
A Rosenthal win would break a more than 30-year Democratic statewide drought in Texas and give him a seat on the three-member regulator overseeing oil and gas projects.