When Jon Rosenthal announced his campaign last fall for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, he never expected to talk about the short-lived Republic of Rhodesia.
asserted
he → announce → Rhodesia
Rosenthal, a 63-year-old mechanical engineer and Democratic state representative from northwest Houston, is the kind of politician you might expect to show interest in the influential but little-understood three-member board that, despite its antiquated name, regulates the oil and gas industry.
uncertain
that → expect → industry
He is an earnest, bald father of two—the kind of guy who uses phrases like “subsea production” and “deep-water intervention systems” in casual conversation.
asserted
who → use → conversation
The Republican chair, he believed, was too cozy with the industry, and Rosenthal prepared a pragmatic slate of ideas to weatherize natural gas networks and clean up abandoned wells.
asserted
Rosenthal → believe → wells
It was shaping up as an important but low-profile race.
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It → shape → race
But Rosenthal is not facing that incumbent.
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Rosenthal → face → incumbent
In a bitter May runoff, Republicans instead nominated Bo French, an investor and former county GOP chair with only the vaguest glimmer of industry experience and a mostly irrelevant and racist political program that calls for deporting 100 million people, purging the nation of Muslims, and emulating a defunct apartheid state.
uncertain
that → nominate → state
Now Rosenthal is the only man standing between one of the most notorious bigots in North Texas and one of the country’s most powerful regulatory positions.
asserted
Rosenthal → stand → positions
Polls suggest he has a shot.
asserted
he → suggest → shot
While this year’s US Senate race between state Rep. James Talarico and Attorney General Ken Paxton may represent Texas Democrats’ best chance to win a statewide race in more than 30 years, French’s lead over Rosenthal is just outside the margin of error.
uncertain
lead → represent → error
That French could be vulnerable in a race Republicans have long taken for granted speaks to both his party’s weak standing and his own.
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Republicans → take → standing
But the fact that he’s made it this far tells a troubling story.
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he → make → story
The state’s Republican leaders have mostly not renounced French.
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leaders → renounce → French
Gov. Greg Abbott has endorsed him.
asserted
Abbott → endorse → him
Paxton has campaigned with him.
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Paxton → campaign → him
The defeated incumbent—who once slammed French for his “ignorant bigotry” and “hateful attacks on the Jewish people”—has offered his congratulations.
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who → defeat → congratulations
Because while French might say some things that others in his party won’t, or use language and imagery that many of them might avoid, the forces that increasingly power their movement are ones he embodies—Christian nationalism, internet-addled white supremacy, and a slow-building and then frighteningly sudden frenzy of state-sponsored Islamophobia.
uncertain
he → say → Islamophobia
For a long time, much of the Texas GOP seemed to exist to serve oil and gas.
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much → seem → oil
Rosenthal views the job as a culmination of his life’s work.
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Rosenthal → view → work
Before launching an Indivisible chapter and flipping a Republican state House seat in 2018, he spent 25 years in and around the oil and gas industry, making service calls to Gulf platforms and West Texas rigs.
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he → launch → platforms
He told me he was motivated to run after the state government’s muted response to Winter Storm Uri in 2021, in which hundreds of Texans died after a catastrophic power grid failure.
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hundreds → tell → failure
In addition to production and pipelines, the office also deals with the industry’s environmental footprint.
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office → deal → footprint
When we spoke in August, Rosenthal had recently returned from a trip to the “Dead Sea of Texas” in the Permian Basin, where an uncapped well had swallowed a county road and created a turquoise-colored lake.
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well → speak → lake
In the nearby town of Grandfalls, a derelict oil well burst last April, spewing 1.5 million gallons of toxic water in a church parking lot.
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well → burst → lot
The RRC was responsible for mitigating such risks, he said, but ill-equipped to do the job.
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he → mitigate → job
“I present myself as serious-minded and keen on the issues and working with industry to protect our communities and strengthen our infrastructure and our economy,” he said, ““and [French] is, forgive the expression, tilting at Islamic windmills.”
asserted
French → present → windmills
He has done considerably more than tilt.
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He → do → more
A 56-year-old political activist who once ran a military and law enforcement training company with “American Sniper” Chris Kyle (French denied Kyle’s widow’s claim that he stole the firm, and the parties eventually settled), French gained notoriety chairing the party in Fort Worth’s Tarrant County and putting it at the forefront of Texas conservatives’ proudly Islamophobic shift.
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French → run → shift
In 2025, around the same time the Tarrant GOP demanded Texas leaders acknowledge new Islamic centers as an “invasion” and “dangerous threat,”French polled his X followers: “Who is a bigger threat to America?”
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Who → demand → America
The backlash, and French’s subsequent attempt to clarify that antisemitism “has no place” in the party, was revealing.
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antisemitism → clarify → party
The problem had not been that he demonized religious minorities, but that he was insufficiently clear which minority he was targeting.
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he → demonize → minority
French’s Islamophobia is generally more direct: Last year, he said President Donald Trump should “denaturalize and deport” a Muslim state representative, then expanded it to say the president should “round up every Muslim in America, denaturalize them, and deport them.”
asserted
president → say → them
To the extent that his candidacy is focused on the Texas Railroad Commission at all, it is because French believes the oil industry, too, must be purged of “the influence of radical Islam.”
asserted
industry → focus → Islam
French, who did not respond to a request for comment, referred to Jim Wright, the Republican commissioner he defeated, as “Jihadi Jim” and alleged that Wright’s ties to a Saudi-owned company’s petrochemical facility had allowed “Islamic values and laws” to infiltrate the commission.
asserted
values → respond → commission
French’s assertion that the state’s fossil fuel industry is being overrun by Muslims is part of his broader and quite explicit call for ethnic cleansing, analogizing patriotic “heritage” Americans’ current situation to that of white settlers in Rhodesia.
asserted
industry → overrun → Rhodesia
As tends to be the case, what starts with one villainized group extends to others: French has written that Trump should “denaturalize and deport all the third world savages who hate our country”—including some Native Americans.
asserted
who → tend → savages
“Time to go round up all the Chinese and send them packing!” he wrote in July.
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he → go → July
(French has said the actual racists are Democrats who push DEI, not people like him.)
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who → say → him
When he heard rumors French was running, Rosenthal assumed it was a prank.
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it → hear → rumors
And while Rosenthal is well aware of his opponent’s oeuvre, when I asked about French’s assertion that “We need to be Rhodesia,” Rosenthal did a double take.
asserted
Rosenthal → ask → take
…and 41 more, not listed.
The Aporia
