Texas' major oil and gas producers and Gov. Greg Abbott spent big in a last-ditch effort to stop Bo French, a hard-right insurgent with a history of disparaging Muslims and immigrants, from claiming a spot on the state's mighty oil and gas regulator.
But it may not be enough, as French led the incumbent Jim Wright on Tuesday night in a Republican primary runoff for a seat on Texas’ Railroad Commission, one of the most powerful energy regulatory bodies in the country.
French had more than 50 percent of the vote in unofficial returns as he sought the Republican nomination for the commission — in part by getting a boost from oil-field billionaires who have often taken different positions from the rest of the industry.
French spent much of the campaign working with grassroots Republican groups who were receptive to his focus on social issues, including the purported danger of Muslims and China in the oil patch. He also championed small oil operators who chafed at some of the Railroad Commission’s regulations.
Wright’s supporters warned that French could disrupt Texas’ powerhouse oil and gas industry because of his focus on other issues — and the possibility that he could lose to a Democrat in November. But such worries may not have convinced a majority of Republican runoff voters to turn away from French.
“It speaks to the power of the activist base, and his ability to mobilize them on the basis of culture-war politics,” said Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University who has tracked the primary election. “It also speaks to the fact that most voters have no idea what the Railroad Commission actually does.”
Despite its name, the Railroad Commission has nothing to do with trains, but it’s one of the most powerful energy regulators in the country. It oversees oil and gas production and pipelines across Texas, giving it sway over roughly 40 percent of U.S. crude output.
The commission race had echoes of the high-profile Texas GOP primary runoff for a Senate seat, which also featured an incumbent trying to fend off a hard-right challenger. Texas Sen. John Cornyn was not successful Tuesday, falling in defeat to state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
In the Railroad Commission race, French collected more than $1.4 million in campaign funds between February and May, and more than half of it came from organizations tied to two ultra-conservative billionaires — Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks.
Abbott, along with the Texas Oil and Gas Association, argued that voting for French could make the Railroad Commission seat vulnerable in the general election. Energy companies donated generously to Wright in the months before the runoff, helping him raise $1.9 million.
Having French on the ticket could be another advantage for Democrats, who are hoping to capitalize on President Donald Trump’s unpopularity and his handling of the economy and war in Iran, SMU’s Wilson said.
“Most voters in the fall aren't going to know much about either one of the candidates for Railroad Commission, but they might know a little bit about Bo French just because of his controversial background,” Wilson said. “And of course, Democrats will want to paint him as a fringy, nutty figure, and actually try to use some of the things that he has said as a way of impugning the whole ticket.”
Three commission members are elected statewide and serve staggered six-year terms. No Democrat has won statewide office in Texas for more than 30 years, so the Republican primary often decides the winner of general elections.
The Democrat in the race, four-term state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, has said he sees a change coming this year because voters are fed up with Republicans at both the state and national level. Rosenthal, a trained engineer, has more than three decades of experience in the oil industry.
“Business wants stability,” he told POLITICO’s E&E News in April. “They want sane governance. I think the major players, the responsible operators, don't mind adhering to the regulations we already have.”
Libertarian Party candidate Arthur DiBianca is also set to be on the November ballot for the Railroad Commission seat.
‘A potential for bias’
Critics and environmentalists have argued for years that the Railroad Commission does not regulate Texas’ oil and gas industry strongly enough. State regulations allow unlimited individual political contributions, and commission members can collect campaign funds from companies that have business in front of them.
Commission Shift Action, which seeks to overhaul the Railroad Commission, has said the money creates “a potential for bias in decision-making.” And it said the agency should refocus on a long list on environmental issues – such as cleaning up abandoned wells, reducing the amount of methane that’s burned in flares and addressing the growing flood of oil field wastewater.
“These are the issues that the agency can control and has the tools and power to address,” Commission Shift Action said in an April statement.
In 2020, Wright was an outsider when he won the Republican primary against then-Commissioner Ryan Sitton. Wright has tried in the years since to position himself as a problem-solver, looking for solutions to environmental issues like natural gas flaring and oil field wastewater disposal, while stressing the need to maintain production.
The regulations were generally accepted by the large producers that dominate the Permian Basin and were able to pay the cost of compliance, but they irked a number of small operators.
French sided with smaller companies, which argued that some of the solutions Wright and the other commissioners adopted — particularly a regulation requiring oil producers to store their waste in plastic-lined pits — were a burden on some operators.
Before running for the Railroad Commission, French was best-known in Texas as chair of the Republican Party in Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth. He drew the ire of other Republicans for social media posts with terms such as “homo” and “retard.”
He posted an online poll last year — which was later deleted — asking whether Muslims or Jews were “a bigger threat to America.” Republicans including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker called on him to resign.
French held onto the job until he announced his campaign for the Railroad Commission later in 2025.
Wright drew four opponents in the Republican primary and polls showed they all had low name recognition, French told E&E News this year. That gave him an edge because he had spent years building contacts with local Republican organizations, who tend to dominate primary elections.
When the ballots were counted in March, Wright finished less than 7,000 votes ahead of French in a five-person Republican primary. That led to Tuesday’s runoff between the two men because no one had a majority of votes in the March election.
French kept up the attacks and called for deporting 100 million people during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference held in Texas in late March.
Wright spent multiple days a week criss-crossing the state after the March primary, arguing that the Railroad Commission had no role in the immigration debate or other social issues that French focused on during the campaign.
“The Railroad Commission has nothing to do with the things that he's talking about,” Wright told E&E News in April.
Abbott pivoted after the runoff results from other statewide races came in, calling for Republicans to work together ahead of the general election.
“A united Republican Party will drive victory, and with the primaries complete, we are laser focused on delivering a decisive victory in November,” he said Tuesday in a statement. “Together, we will crush socialist Democrats’ dream of turning Texas blue.”
from Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories https://ift.tt/5IrcsO7
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment