By admin 
Bo French, the Republican nominee for one of Texas’ most powerful statewide offices, is facing bipartisan criticism over a racist post about the crowd at a University of Texas football game.
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Now, a CNN KFile investigation has uncovered since-removed posts from the past six years in which French repeatedly advocated having public executions for political opponents, including former President Barack Obama.
French is running to lead the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s powerful oil and gas industry. His earlier post portrayed South Asian students at the university as “foreigners” displacing Americans.
Although French has stood by that post, prominent Republicans have distanced themselves from his candidacy. Longtime GOP strategist and former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove said he would vote for the Democrat in the race, while Texas Sen. John Cornyn said he would not vote for French.
French has dismissed his detractors as “less conservative” and he did not respond to CNN’s inquiries. The episode is the latest controversy involving French’s provocative rhetoric on immigration, race and religion. Earlier this year, he called for deporting 100 million people and suggested that Republicans embrace Islamophobia.
A CNN KFile review uncovered at least five removed social media posts from February 2025 in which French, using a previous username from his current account, invoked public executions, gallows or hanging. It’s unclear if the posts were deleted by French himself or removed because they violated Twitter’s prior rules against hate speech.
CNN also uncovered other posts in which French called for executions. Those posts came from a since-suspended account that French used during his two failed runs for the Texas statehouse in 2016 and 2018.
In May 2020, amid Republican backlash to the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, French publicly called for the death penalty for people he described as “Obama conspirators,” invoked death as punishment for Obama himself, referring to the “former president,” and others while he repeatedly used the hashtag #HangEmHigh.
The Trump Justice Department had just moved to drop its prosecution of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who lied to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador in the weeks before Trump took office in 2017. Trump used this to accuse former Obama-era officials of “treason.” The House Intelligence Committee, led by then-Rep. Adam Schiff, had also released dozens of transcripts from its investigation.
“The penalty for treason used to be death. Even for a former president. #HangEmHigh,” wrote French, replying to a post seemingly blaming Obama for the Russian investigation.
“It’s time we drop the hammer on these treasonous bastards and punish them with the full measure of justice. #HangEmHigh,” he wrote in response to a tweet asking if Schiff had been arrested.
The new revelations come as some of the most powerful Republican officials in Texas continue to back French. Gov. Greg Abbott, who is running for re-election, and Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for Senate, have both maintained their endorsements of French despite the latest controversy.
French reached the general election after ousting incumbent Railroad Commissioner, Republican Jim Wright in May’s runoff election, despite Wright being backed by Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows. French also won despite his past anti-Muslim rhetoric being condemned by statewide officials like Patrick.
French now faces Democratic state Rep. Jon Rosenthal for a six-year term on the three-member Texas Railroad Commission. The agency no longer regulates railroads despite its name. It has broad authority over the state’s oil and gas industry, including drilling, pipelines and natural gas utilities.
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Abbott subsequently endorsed French as the party’s standard bearer for November’s general election. Paxton, after his Democratic opponent for Senate James Talarico challenged him to condemn French, wrote, “I condemn racism in all its forms,” but did not name French or directly address the post. Abbott likewise called French’s post “not my message.”
Yet neither Abbott nor Paxton, who proudly accepted French’s endorsement in May, have said they won’t support French. Abbott and Paxton did not respond to CNN’s inquiries on French’s execution comments, nor did the Texas Republican Party.
‘More than perp walks’
The more recent February 2025 tweets include multiple calls for executions against government officials he said were exposed by DOGE – the Elon Musk initiative that embedded staffers throughout federal agencies to look for ways to curtail spending, including by ending various programs and obligations.
French wrote at the time that DOGE, which was an acronym of Department of Government Efficiency, should actually stand for “Dangle Officials Gallows Expeditiously,” adding in other tweets he wanted “more than perp walks” and “public executions,” for government officials he said were exposed by DOGE.
French at the time was chairman of the local Tarrant County Republican Party and was promoting a separate Texas effort modeled on Musk’s DOGE.
Another post called for executing Schiff, now a US senator, for alleged treason. French also responded to a post blaming a federal judge and prosecution for the suicide of a Jan. 6 defendant by writing, “In this scenario, the wrong person was hung.”
It’s unclear if French deleted the posts from February 2025 of if they were removed for violating Twitter’s terms of service, but other posts from French’s account at the time no longer populate when you search in his Twitter account.
Those posts were published under an earlier version of French’s current X username. Archived account records reviewed by CNN’s KFile show that the old and current handles share the same underlying numeric user ID, an identifying account number that does not change when you change your X handle.
Calls for executions
French used DOGE’s launch in 2025 to repeatedly call for executions of government officials.
In one exchange from February 2025, when one X user worried about Musk’s “damage” “to the federal government” might not be reversible, another replied, “Uhh yea, that’s the point.” French, responding directly to that comment, escalated it further, writing, “It will really be the point when we have the public executions.”
In yet another tweet from February 2025 on DOGE, French wrote, “I want more than perp walks. I want public executions.”
Six minutes after a post that read, “Good night to everyone who wants to see Adam Schiff in prison,” French seemingly rejected that punishment as not harsh enough.
“No. I want to see public executions for traitors,” he wrote, rejecting imprisonment as sufficient punishment for the senator.
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