HOUSTON — Texas Railroad Commission candidate Bo French’s incendiary anti-immigrant post about students celebrating at a University of Texas football game last month appears to have backfired.
Despite widespread criticism from fellow Republicans, French, had refused to take the viral post down , and instead attempted to raise funds off of the publicity.
Money has poured into the race from across the country. But it has favored his opponent, Houston Democratic state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, according to the latest campaign filing for July through September.
French raised $439,000 to Rosenthal’s $488,000, the most the Democrat had raised since launching his campaign last November. Previously, French had far out-raised Rosenthal — who ran unopposed — $2.4 million to $229,092.
But after French’s viral post, Rosenthal, a mechanical engineer who’s worked for decades in the oil and gas industry, received donations from every state except North Dakota, including $25,000 from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), according to campaign filings. The bulk of donations (60 percent) came from thousands of small donors in Texas.
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