Rove, a former senior adviser to President George W. Bush and longtime Texas Republican strategist, announced he will vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal in the Texas Railroad Commission race.
Rosenthal is a Houston Democrat running against Republican Bo French for a seat on the commission, the state agency that regulates oil and gas production.
Rove made the announcement at a members-only lunch event at the Headliners Club in Austin, calling French a “bigot,” according to three attendees granted anonymity by The Texas Tribune.
The remarks came after French posted racist comments on Sunday about South Asian students at the University of Texas at Austin.
French shared a post on X showing a photo of the student section cheering a Texas Longhorn victory against Ohio State, referring to the students as “foreigners” who had displaced Americans.
French made the claim without having any information about the citizenship or immigration status of the students pictured.
Rove noted he has voted for only one Democratic candidate in his life, former Texas Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, who was up for reelection in 1994.
Neither Rove nor French were immediately reachable to comment on the matter following the Austin lunch event.
French has made culture wars the centerpiece of his Railroad Commission campaign, frequently making incendiary comments about the LGBTQ+ community and federal immigration policy, issues entirely outside the commission’s jurisdiction.
French has also publicly called for the federal government to deport 100 million people, a number that would necessarily include American citizens.
President Donald Trump pushed back against Rove late Monday, posting on Truth Social that Rove was “bad” for Republicans and “completely wrong so often.”
“He suffers from a major case of Trump Derangement Syndrome primarily because, for almost 10 years, I beat back and won against so many of the people and things that he wanted and espoused,” Trump wrote.
Trump ended his post by questioning why Fox News and The Wall Street Journal “keep this Rino [Republican in name only] Voice alive.”
