Texas Energy Board: Democrat Claims First Seat in Decades

Jon Rosenthal secured a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission on Tuesday, defeating Republican challenger Bo French and a third candidate in a contest that ended a decades-long partisan hold by the GOP. Rosenthal will serve a six-year term on the three-member board, which regulates the state’s multibillion-dollar oil and gas industry despite no longer overseeing railroads since 2005.

The victory marks a rare Democratic breakthrough in an agency where the party had been shut out for decades. According to Associated Press election data, Rosenthal drew his strongest support from urban areas leaning Democratic. French, by contrast, carried multiple counties in the Permian Basin, the geographic center of Texas’s oil production.

French’s campaign was dominated by controversies over his public remarks rather than specific policy platforms. In September, the former chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party, a district that includes Fort Worth, sparked national attention after posting on X that South Asian American students attending a University of Texas football game showed foreigners were displacing Americans. Senator John Cornyn and other prominent state Republicans publicly criticized the comments.

That incident followed an earlier dispute in June 2025, when French asked his followers on X whether Jews or Muslims posed a greater threat to the country. He later clarified his position, stating that the Republican Party respected the free exercise of religion and had no place for antisemitism.

On the campaign trail, French emphasized cultural issues and deregulation. His family operates an oil company in West Texas, and he advocated for looser regulations on the industry. He also promised to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion measures and limit the influence of what he termed radical Islam and the Chinese Communist Party in the state’s energy sector.

Rosenthal campaigned on practical governance, citing 25 years of experience as an oil and gas engineer. He pledged to lower utility rates, ensure clean water and air, and establish regulatory guardrails for the construction of new datacenters. The policy differences were largely overshadowed by the national focus on French’s rhetoric.

In a post on X on Tuesday evening, Rosenthal described the result as a rejection of his opponent’s approach. "I am humbled and honored by the faith placed in me by the people of Texas, who have sent the message that the politics of hate and division do not win in the Lone Star State," he wrote. He thanked Republicans who, in his assessment, chose competence over chaos.