The Republican primary runoff ran for the open Texas Railroad Commissioner position was too close to call as of Wednesday morning, with extremist candidate Bo French leading the incumbent by less than 15,000 votes, according to the Associated Press’ unofficial tally of returns.
Whoever wins will face Democratic nominee Jon Rosenthal and Libertarian candidate Arthur DiBianca in November. The runoff primary race pitted French against Jim Wright, the incumbent chairman and a longtime figure in Texas’ oil and gas sector. With 95 percent of the vote in on Wednesday morning, French was leading the incumbent with 50.6% of the vote to Wright’s 49.4%.
French waged an eye-popping campaign for the seat on a platform that had little to do with the actual work of the office, supporting the deportation of 100 million people and railing against what he described as the “Islamification” of Texas.
The Texas Railroad Commission oversees the state’s oil and gas industry, with the important role of setting regulations, ensuring safety and more. Traditionally, Texas’ system of electing commissioners to the board has meant that the industry has largely been able to regulate itself: oil and gas companies and their head honchos contribute money to candidates. Like Wright, many commissioners are elected after spending their careers running companies in the oil and gas sector.
But a confluence of events changed that this cycle. For one, there’s a split within Texas’ oil industry about environmental regulations: under Wright, the commission put forth limited new rules to contain massive environmental hazards around wastewater. Fracking, which produces more waste, has accelerated the problem with wastewater disposal, which in some cases builds up enough pressure to cause geysers of wastewater to erupt from the Texas soil.
While the big oil companies have largely acceded to the limited changes that Wright has championed as commissioner, smaller, independent oil firms are opposed to Wright’s regulations. They largely coalesced behind French, while large, multinational oil companies threw their support behind Wright. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had said that electing French would destroy the state’s oil industry.
To draw attention to his candidacy, French campaigned on the kind of far-right culture war politics that Trump’s takeover of the GOP over the past decade has enabled. He’s supported deporting 100 million people; much of his campaign focused on demonizing Muslims. When asked to criticize specific problems in Texas’ oil industry, French resorted to blaming various issues on a push by the commission to consider diversity when hiring among contractors.
Republicans have controlled the Texas Railroad Commission for thirty years. The last Democrat to serve on the commission left the office in 1995.
