What A Day - Texas GOP Rebukes Candidate's Racist Comments

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

One of the biggest elections everyone is watching this year is the Texas Senate race. But the race that's getting a lot of attention right now for allegations of bigotry is the Railroad Commissioner race. The Republican who wants the job spent his weekend complaining about non-white students at a University of Texas at Austin football game. To learn more, Jane spoke to Robert Downen. He’s a Senior Writer for Texas Monthly based in Austin.Show Notes: Check out Robert's work – texasmonthly.com/contributors/robert-downen/ Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – tinyurl.com/… What A Day – YouTube – youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – instagram.com/crookedmedia For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail]

There has been over the last few years in Texas a really, really intense ramping up of anti-Indian and anti-Muslim bigotry. I mean, if you go to Frisco, if you go to some of these Dallas suburbs right now, you know, every single city council meeting seemingly has some internet troll using the public comment time to say horribly racist things. It's Tuesday, September 15th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is Waday, recorded today from Washington, D.C. Here we go. First view.

Senator McConnell, how you feeling? Senator McConnell! McConnell! How are you going to vote today, sir? Welcome back, Senator McConnell. That's video from independent journalist Desiree Townsend, showing Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell looking alive as he returned to the Senate Monday after a three-month absence. Meanwhile, earlier today, FBI Director Cash Patel had answered

the tough questions, like about how the Bureau is loosening standards for hiring so that people who have engaged in bestiality can apply. Yes, I said beastiality. But in news that isn't gross and is actually good, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday against President Donald Trump's efforts to restrict mail-in voting for the midterms. As you might expect, Trump responded by freaking out on true social, writing, quote, these are not the people I interviewed to serve in the United States Supreme Court. are merely a shell of their original selves. One of the biggest elections everyone is watching this year is in Texas, but I want to start with a race you might not be paying too much attention to. It's to be on the Railroad Commission

Board, but the Republican who wants the job spent his weekend complaining about non-white people going to football games. To learn more, I spoke to Robert Downen. He's a senior writer for Texas Monthly based in Austin. Robert Downen, welcome to Water Day. Thank you for having me. Saturday night for most people in Austin, Texas was a very excited. Well, actually it was a very bad like 45 minutes followed by a really great 15 minutes as the Texas Longhorts came back from down 23 to three to beat the number one Ohio State Buckeyes. But Beau French, the Republican running for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, was not watching the Texas Ohio State game like a normal person. He was very focused on the people in the stands. He posted a picture on Twitter. of a group of University of Texas students of South Asian descent, celebrating the victory, some wearing cowboy hats, and posted, quote, I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn't believe it.

The problem is now obviously worse than anyone imagined. Who is he and what is he running for again? And why was he so focused on the people in the stands of the game, sort of? Bo French, as you said, he's running for Railroad Commission, regulates the Texas oil and gas industry. And, you know, he's kind of been within the context of Texas politics, one of these guys who's, you know, really represented this far right flank of the party. To your question about why he took issue with who was in the stands at this game, I would say that it's because it's very in keeping with his views on who should and should not be

in this state more broadly, as I'm sure we'll get into. So, yeah, I want to talk about that because he has a lengthy history of bigotry. So I'm not surprised by this. But what I've been interested in is that it's getting a lot more attention than, and I think you pointed this out in the piece saying, like, it's gotten a lot more attention from Texas Republicans who are condemning it. For instance, Texas Senator John Cornyn, who obviously is not running for re-election, has been posting about this a lot on Twitter. So why do you think it has drawn so much more attention that he's a racist when he's been a racist for a long time? I mean, I think the cynical take is the GOP looks at the polling numbers and realizes that they are already,

things are not looking good for them in November. Why further alienate a base that they've already pretty well alienated over the last few years in particular? But I think also, you know, the less cynical view is I do think that there was just kind of something about this guy picking out a bunch of kids doing a quintessential Texas thing. For no other reason than their skin color. I mean, let's be clear here. Like this is a man who saw brown kids at a game and assumed that they were foreigners. and assumed that they were less deserving to be there. I mean, it is the definitive racism.

And I think that something about that really, you know, for so long the Republican line has been, you know, on immigration has been that the issue is not immigration per se. It's more so that these people are not assimilating. Well, here you have a, you know, a platonic ideal of assimilation with these kids celebrating this incredible win at UT and they wake up the next day to just find. Whereing cowboy hats.

Right, 100%. Throwing the horns. Yeah. Like, and then they wake up to the next day to find out that they are. just being dogpiled online by, you know, white nationalists and racists, some of whom are running for office. I think that that actually did just kind of touch and nerve with people. Yeah, I think also something that this is reflective of and you're well aware of it is that there has been this online cadre of people who are convinced that there are too many Indian American folks,

too many South Asian folks in Texas. And you see this with baffling posts. And you see this with baffling posts about like, I went to Costco and there were a lot of brown people there. And I think it really gives lie to the idea that this is actually about assimilation or this is actually about, you know, wanting the best to come to the United States. Because right now you're getting an example of what I call Goldilocks racism. Because the point that Beau French and a couple of other people have been attempting to make raciously is like, no, no, no, this is bad. They're doing too well. They're doing too well at school. There are too many of them at our top institutions and not enough spots for white men.

It's that, you know, it's not that they're not good enough. It's that they're too good. So just to back up a little bit further, we know that the vast majority of students at the University of Texas are from the state of Texas. That's how you get into the University of Texas. It's a very clear system, and yet... It's a famous system, too. It's a very famous system, too. It's well known for this, yes. Yes, and so it really seemed indicative to me that this is, one, as you point out, just about skin color, but also about this idea that, you know, for lack of a better term for it, it's like they want bizarro DEI, but for white men.

I mean, not to get too much into the things that undergird white supremacy as an ideology in general, but I think it's fair to say that a, crucial planks of it is both being perpetually under the foot of some imagined enemy while also maintaining that you are the superior race. So I think that, you know, this is a good example of this where you see these kids in their minds have to be not deserving to be there because if they are deserving, then the entire narrative falls in on itself. But to your point, I mean, I think that you know, one of the other things that's important to talk about in the context of this is that this is all happening in Texas, as there has been in over the last few years in Texas a really, really intense ramping up of anti-Indian and anti-Muslim bigotry.

I mean, if you go to Frisco, if you go to some of these Dallas suburbs right now, you know, every single city council meeting seemingly has some internet troll using the public comment time to say horribly racist things. You know, they are, Greg Abbott recently, you know, a few weeks ago was going to war with one of the airports because they had a foot washing station for Muslims. I mean, this has been kind of the bread and butter of the party for quite some time. And I think what they're, you know, one read of the blowback to. about French is that, you know, he is, I don't want to say saying the quiet part out loud,

but more so that he is a, a bullhorn where they would prefer a dog whistle, I guess. And it wouldn't be clear. I'm not talking about everyone in the party, but some people in the party. Yeah. And I think, again, to your point, that he's not saying this because they're practicing a different tradition or because they're doing anything. They are literally doing the most American thing you can do, which is screaming your head off because your college football team just won this crazy game. And he's like, nope, too brown. But the cynical explanation for the blowback he's been getting. And part of that is that the Texas political ground seems to be shifting. And I think we should talk a little bit about Ken Paxton, who had a very mealy-mouth response to this, which I noted where you're trying to not offend the racist, but also trying to say, like, this isn't exactly what I agree with. with. And a poll from AARP last week says that Tala Rico is leading in that race, but older Texans prefer Ken Paxton. But also Ken Paxton seems to be, no one seems to like him. Donald Trump doesn't

seem to like him and seemed unable to say anything nice about Ken Paxton, even talking about how, I believe he said that Ken Paxton was ugly. So what's going on with Paxton in this race? And how is this whole conversation within the GOP in Texas impacting him? Yeah, I mean, you know, there was polling that came out today, I think, that showed, you know, Trump is underwater something like 50 points with, you know, non-college educated Latino. So one of the bases that was crucial. I know. But one of the bases that was crucial to pushing them over the edge in 2024 and also has been kind of, you know, a base that the GOP, specifically in Texas, has been cultivating for quite some time and played into how they redrew maps last year. I think that, you know, both French and Ken Paxson, I think very much represent the similar.

similar parts of the same party. I mean, for the longest time, they were funded by the same two far-right billionaires. They have been kind of, the, the, Paxon has really been the kind of tip of the spear of this far-right movement in Texas GOP that has been attacking the more moderate, but still deeply conservative wing of the party from the right, trying to pull it further and further and further. And over the time, as this kind of slow-moving civil war has been breaking out within the Texas GOP, there have been moderate voices saying, eventually we are going to go too far. And, like, eventually, we will lose because of this. I mean, this is a story is all the time in politics. Uniparty rule eventually, you know, collapses in on itself. And I think that that's what, you know, we're seeing with Ken Paxton.

His election was, you know, the warning signs have been there for a long time to anybody who was willing to listen that he was not a particularly strong candidate. But a lot of the people who are making this decision, you know, these races are decided by a small fraction of primary voters who are generally speaking, some of the more hardline people in the state. And so what that means is a lot of times we get candidates here that are not actually as reflective of the state writ large, but still manage to stay in office so long as they don't kind of touch these third rails that increasingly Beau French is touching.

Right. If you have spent the last couple of years bragging about being able to draw minorities to the GOP, it seems like Beau French isn't really helping there. I would not say he's a net benefit on that front now. No. What impact, if any, did last week's mid-Defatheye? term Trumpapalooza and Dallas have on the energy for elections across the state? Because it's, I mean, granted, I have daily news brain, and so I forget about things all the time. But it feels

like that happened two months ago. I think, you know, again, it's impossible to quantify, but I think that it really, in the long run, is going to matter very little. I mean, as you said, the endorsements that Paxton, who is the most in need of a Trump boost, got were, you know, were not without insults packed into them. The kind of, you know, speeches that Paxson gave himself were kind of, I think, deflated, a lot of people said. And again, going out of, you know, labor, coming out of Labor Day weekend should be where their biggest momentum is. And right now they're dealing with fallout from a racist post that some guy, you know, one of their candidates put out while, because while the rest of us were happy about a football game. So I would say that it's, you know, materially not going to make that much of a difference.

but, you know, things can always change, I guess. We'll get back to my conversation with Robert Downen in just a moment. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. I want to get better at pretty much everything, from running to lifting weights to finally figuring out how to make the perfect lamb to gene. Better is a feeling defined by you and me. And for BetterHelp, it's a better help therapist who really gets you. It's a focus on global emotional well-being with thousands of therapists and millions of members in over 100. countries. It's progress at dealing with stress and everyday anxiety with the right help.

Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com.com slash Wad. That's Betterhelp.com slash Wadde. What a day is brought to you by dose. Can we talk about the most underrated organ in your body? Your liver. It's doing 500 plus functions every single day, filtering unwanted elements, supporting digestion, helping with energy, but we never think about it until something's wrong. What if we actually supported it before problems started? Dose for your liver is a clinically backed liver health supplement. This isn't just another capsule or powder. Dose is a liquid supplement.

It's taken in a daily 2-ounce shot and it tastes just like fresh-squeezed orange juice. Dose cleanses the liver of unwanted stressors so that's slowing your liver down. It promotes daily liver function so your liver can do its job, with zero sugar, zero junk, zero calories. And dose gets real results with two double-blind placebo-controlled studies showing its positive impact on liver enzyme levels. Ready to give your liver the support it deserves. Head to do Dostdaily.co slash Wad or enter Wad to get 35% off your first subscription. Your body does so much for you.

Let's do something for it. That's D-O-S-E-D-A-I-L-Y.C-O-S-WD-E-A-L-L-Y-S-WD-F for 35% off your first month subscription. Let's get back to my conversation with Robert Donan. How has Paxton himself tried to course correct? Because obviously he gets, you know, he wins this primary. Primaries are determined by the hardliners. He spent a lot of time focusing on incoming Sharia law in Houston or something. But he has made some efforts sort of to pivot

towards the middle a little bit. Can you tell me more about that? Yeah, he started his campaign, you know, once it became clear that he was going to win his primary against John Cornyn. He really went all in on, I don't even want to call it culture war stuff, you know, calling James Talerico of vegan, they nicknamed him six-gender Jimmy, Tala Frico, which Tala Rico has since repurposed. And like, you know, the kind of, the kind of, honestly, the kind of through line of a lot of the attack ads was basically that this guy's too much of a wimp to win in Texas. He's not a real man. And we, being the Republican Party, get to decide what a real man is.

Right. Ken Paxson, you know, is, and Ken Paxson kind of framed himself as this outside crusader willing to take on the rhinos in the swamp, you know, kind of, you know, a, and, a, you know, a An every man crusader, I guess. You know, you're every man crusader who's been the Attorney General of the States. I know, I know, I know, I know. You don't have to make this make sense. This is very helpful.

The other really important thing to understand about Texas politics is that the people who are electing both French, the people who are supporting Attorney General, Kavanaugh and as a candidate, they have been pumped for the last 15 or so years with this, via this network that claims that Texas is secretly under the control of Democrats. Like there's a fund of, there's a significant cohort of Texas voters who actually believe that the Texas legislature is secretly Democrat run and that there's perpetually these rhinos who are in bed with Democrats to stab them in the back. And so that's how you get these candidates where it's like, oh, you, you are way more

extreme than the mainstream, even Republican, I think at times. But because there's no other options because of low voter turnout because of all these different things, you are kind of securing your spot. And now we're starting to see that kind of crack. And so in response to that, Paxton has tried to pivot a little bit to economic issues. But like at the end of the day, I think it's a very hard pivot for him, especially when James Telerico has made a lot of his campaign about, you know, a quote he often says is it's not left first right, it's top versus bottom.

He has really made, I think, the broader corruption of our political system, including by the billionaires who backed Kahn Paxton for most of his career, he's made that a central part of his campaign. So it's not an easy pivot for Paxton, which is why I do think you start, you're starting to see him go back to kind of like, you know, playing the hit. they're using a lot of the panic over Al-Sayed, Mandami, the DSA in general, that's coming up a lot. And I think that that's kind of going to be their message as we approach November. I'm curious in terms of some other issues that are coming up in Texas politics.

I know that Paxton has had to make a radical shift on data centers because he, like everybody else, had been very supportive of data centers in Texas and now has to pretend like he isn't. How is that issue playing out, especially in the... somewhere like Austin, where I can imagine you've got kind of the, you know, that weird horseshoe of the Keep Austin weird lefties who don't like data centers, but also the extremely pro-Trump, but lightly paranoid people who also don't like data centers. I mean, I think the big story, you know, as in other places, specifically in Texas, of data centers is these kind of rural, you know, kind of suburban, you know, these rural parts of the

state. And, you know, again, I covered a big fight for that in central. Texas or North Texas a few months ago where they're trying to build these 150 foot power lines that are going to connect across the states to data centers. And you're starting to see a lot of rural opposition. But the other thing that I think is important is that the data centers are coming, you know, for the longest time, the Texas GOP has been reliably able to stay in power here because of this kind of entrenched rural support that they have.

But over the last few years, we've seen a lot of different issues that are really hitting rural, that are really rural issues, data centers. There was, you know, a school voucher bill that was passed that, you know, really changes the funding mechanisms for some of these rural schools that are the lifeblood of their communities. I think that the sudden, you know, the back and forth and now banning of THC in the state is one of those things that's going to piss off a lot of libertarian voters in the rules. I mean, I think that the, the, the, the, the, uh, the, uh, GOP has really, you know, they have, they have given Democrats the best opportunity they've had in 30 years. and I think that that's what's showing up in the polls.

I mean, to that point, Democrats have been fooled before many, many, many times by the chance of beating a Republican for statewide office in Texas. I mean, you could name all the names you want to, basically since the great Anne Richards ceased to be governor of the state of Texas. In your view, does this time feel different? or, you know, what has changed and what, what's the vibe you're getting about whether or not it really is different this time? I think that if you look at the polling, I mean, again, you know, no one wants to trust the polling. But if we can look at, you know, where Democrats were polling in 2024, where Beto was polling, again, Beto got within a few points of Ted Cruz.

Like, the way that that his campaign has been kind of rewritten the collective memory is that he was always like seen as the heir apparent to beating Ted Cruz and then got walled by him. But that's not what happened. He was trailing basically the entire race. And then he still got within what three points, which should have been, you know, a warning sign to the GOP. And I think that what's different now is, again, if you look at, like, Beto was never leading in perpetuity the way that James Talarico is. He didn't have all of these, you know, he had some wins, wins at his back in backlash to the Trump administration, but nothing that I think we're seeing now. And so I do think that this is a different ballgame and that Republicans who are pretending it's not are either diluted or or have fully bought into the kind of, you know, narrative about the state's politics that got them Kempaxson as a candidate in the first place.

What are you going to be watching for over the next? I mean, we're just under two months until Election Day. What are you going to be watching for in state that you think is going to give you some indication of where that Senate race is going to go and where races is. like both Frenches are going to go. I'm going to be looking a lot at outside spending. You know, we just saw, I think, $50 million injected into Texas. That is a clear sign that there's some worry. I think that one of the, you know, you know, there have been some little things that have even happened recently. You know, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Governor Greg Abbott both have named their

opponents into attack ads. They've suddenly started doing that, which is not something that they've typically done because they've never really had to. The kind of, you know, mindset was out of sight, out of mind. like we don't have to worry about these people. So there's all those little things. I think, you know, we'll be on the campaign trail with both French. We'll be following James Talarico. And I think that, you know, the big question, I think, remains there in all these polls, there's still this cohort of undecided voters. And, you know, a lot of them could ultimately break for

Ken Paxton. But if they don't, I think that this is James Talarico's, you know, I'll go with what the poll say, which is that this is currently his race to lose. Robert, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me. That was my conversation with Robert Downen, senior writer at Texas Monthly, based in Austin, Texas. Before we go, how scared should we be about the AI doomsday scenarios coming out of Silicon Valley? And what will it take for politicians to finally step in and regulate AI? Last Saturday on offline, journalist Max Fisher and John Favreau dug into it all.

Check out offline with John Favro on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for today. if you like the show, make sure you're subscribe, leave a review, contemplate how Democrats are now leading Republicans in polling on immigration and the economy and tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading,

and not just about how that's according to new polls from the New York Times, which show Democrats have a near nine-point advantage over the GOP in congressional races, like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe.

I'm Jane Koston, and according to that, voters now see Republicans as elitist, extreme, and corrupt. Voters, they're just like me. Why today is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Emily Ford, Erica Morrison, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Metberg, Adam Lippurg, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor. We had helped today from the Associated Press.

Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. I'm Nate Silver. I'm Gailen Drook. And I'm Claire Malone. We're back. with our friends at Crooked Media for a new show called Still Counting. Yeah. Numbers are hard.

Takes her easy. And frankly, numbers have only gotten harder. What does the data actually say? How do we reconcile that with the other things that we're seeing in American politics and around the world? And how do we use that data to understand or maybe even dare to predict the future of American politics? New episodes every Wednesday starting September 9th. Subscribe to Still Counting on YouTube.com. slash at still counting podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.