Howdy there! Welcome to your Wednesday Deep Dive. If you didn’t see on social media, our first round of FOIAball merch came in last week.
The reviews are exceptional. Look at these beauts! Even better (for me), they are already sold out. If you would like to be the first to get your hands on our next drop, add your name here.
Now, let’s blog.
Texas’ improbable fourth-quarter comeback against Ohio State last Saturday is the kind of feel-good victory that can carry a team through an entire season.
But the Longhorns only got to ride that emotional high for about 90 seconds. Right after the game, Steve Sarkisian caught grief for blowing off ESPN’s Holly Rowe, a slight that spiraled completely out of control.
And yet, a star quarterback professing his appreciation for an AI edit of his head coach slapping a woman was the smaller of the school’s scandals stemming from the game.
After the win, Republican candidate for Texas Oil Commissioner (I refuse to dignify the state’s stupid nomenclature) Bo French shared a picture of the student body going absolutely ballistic.
Far from appreciating their unfettered joy, French used a bunch of children hooting and hollering as fodder for what can best be described as his long campaign to instigate a race war.
The post was so unpleasant it drew condemnation from even the most enthusiastic proponents of ethnonationalism, Texas Republicans, with some pledging to support French’s Democratic opponent in the upcoming election.
On Monday, the school’s Board of Regents issued a statement about French’s tweet, one that, when you read it, doesn’t really say much.
"When I stood on the sidelines at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium Saturday night and looked up at the seats filled with incredible fans, I saw Longhorns,” Chairman Kevin Eltife said. “I’m proud to celebrate all our Longhorn students today and every day. Thank you for making us proud.”
Why not forcefully condemn him? Maybe it was one of those things where they didn’t even want to dignify French’s remarks.
Maybe it’s unrelated, but Texas Longhorn football is inextricably tied to oil money. And oil money supports French.
Which means some big Longhorn boosters have opened up their wallets for him.
Regardless of how he appends his name to various stalled, failed, and disregarded business ventures, R. W. Bo French, Bo French, Richard West Bo French, Richard French, Richard W French, and/or Richard West French has a lengthy history of noxious, odious, and vitriolic statements.
Which hasn’t stopped big money from backing him.
One of the central components of his campaign for Caboose Chief is the deportation of every Muslim in the country. On June 23, French tweeted, “I won’t rest until every Muslim is gone.”
Seven days later, Texas Tech mega-boosters Cody Campbell and John Sellers gave $25,000 each to his campaign.
Campbell said French’s comments about Texas fans crossed a line, but, lol, not enough to withdraw his support. Campbell added that French would still make a “capable commissioner,” code for “us robber barons are paying you to do our bidding, so please shut up and get elected, you dolt.”
French’s views are so conspiratorially extreme that he was once suspended from Twitter AFTER Elon Musk took over. Honestly… respect.
His new account, where he brands anything left-leaning as “gay race communism,” is practically indistinguishable from that of a groyper gooner clacking away in his childhood bedroom. Which tracks, because French is basically propped up by his mother.
The only difference is that he’s 56.
French comes from West Texas oil largesse, and the largest individual donor to his campaign is his mother, Marcia Fuller French.
Marcia has given $225,000 across three separate donations. His other biggest donors are also in the oil industry, a group that includes prominent Longhorn alumni.
One of French’s biggest fiscal supporters is Miles Boldrick, owner of Statewide Minerals Company. He’s given $45,000 to French across three donations. In 2007, Boldrick sat on the Longhorn Foundation Advisory Council, a collection of volunteers (donors) who work to “identify critical program needs and to provide advisement regarding long-range plans for UT Athletics."
Also serving on the council that year would be Bo’s late father, L. R. French Jr.
In an obituary from 2013, Bo’s dad was described as “a lifelong, staunch supporter of his alma mater as well as its football program.”
How staunch? How about having a meeting room in the football facility named after him? According to a 2019 style guide from Texas’ athletic department, the school had an “L. R. French Jr. Meeting Room” in the Moncrief-Neuhaus Athletics Center, which the football team calls home.
If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the Moncriefs are some of the university’s biggest backers. Richard Moncrief is a sideline pass holder for Texas football games. He’s given $15,000 to French’s campaign.
There’s also Bud Brigham, who produced a movie, My All-American, about a former Longhorn, which the school helped promote. Brigham once sat on the chancellor’s executive committee and has donated $7,000 to French
And though he didn’t give this year, Javaid Anwar, a longtime wealthy Longhorn booster, gave French $25,000 in 2018 for a failed Texas House run. I wonder why he stayed out this cycle. I bet it's because French wants to deport his whole family!
But let’s not besmirch just the University of Texas here. Every big school has prominent alumni and boosters who have given to French.
We mentioned Campbell and Sellers at Texas Tech. Then there’s TCU, where French went. His mom served on the school’s Board of Trustees. Meanwhile, alumnus Douglas Scharbauer, who has donated over $1 million to Horned Frogs athletics, gave French $25,000.
Over in College Station, French took in $20,000 from Quarter Circle W Trust, which is an LLC registered to Kathaleen Wall, herself a failed congressional candidate. Wall once gave $5 million to Texas A&M’s engineering department.
There’s also a big Baylor Law booster, but honestly I don’t care about that school and neither should you.
All of which is to say, there ain’t a single institution of higher learning in the Lone Star State that isn’t sullied by some association with this man.
But I have a solution. The election is in November. If French wins, the College Football Playoff Committee should bar every team in the state from participating in the postseason for the entirety of his six-year term.
Make these folks face an actual choice: their oil money or their football.
Thanks for reading. If you enjoy independent media that’s unafraid to cover taboo topics with voice and verve, become a paid subscriber to FOIAball today. I have no oil money. I need you!
I’ll see you tomorrow!
Bo French via Bo French for Texas Railroad Commissioner/YouTube
