Karl Rove Breaks With GOP Over 'Bigot' Candidate in Texas

Karl Rove just announced a rare party-line break in Texas, and it's over a statewide race that doesn't even oversee culture-war issues. The veteran GOP strategist told attendees at a private Austin luncheon that he plans to vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal for the Texas Railroad Commission after Republican nominee Bo French posted remarks about South Asian students at the University of Texas at Austin that Rove said came from a "bigot," according to three people present who spoke to the Texas Tribune. Rove—who said he has backed a Democrat only once before, way back in 1994, and who teaches at UT-Austin—praised his South Asian students and Texas Republicans who criticized French.

French has leaned into hard-right rhetoric on immigration, LGBTQ+ issues, and religion, despite the commission's focus on oil and gas production. Late Monday, President Trump "flipped out" and blasted Rove online, not long after Rove announced his voting plan, reports HuffPost. "Karl Rove is so bad for the Republican Party, and completely wrong so often," Trump wrote on Truth Social, accusing Rove of having "Trump Derangement Syndrome." "Why does FoxNews and the WSJ keep his RINO Voice alive. The guy is a stone cold loser!"