Texas Senator John Cornyn is continuing his public break with Republican Texas Railroad Commission nominee Bo French, this time by sharing longtime GOP strategist Karl Rove’s explanation for why he plans to vote for a Democrat in November. Rove says he will support Democratic state Representative Jon Rosenthal after French drew widespread condemnation for a social media post that targeted South Asian students at the University of Texas.
The senator’s escalating criticism has fueled an increasingly public fight among Texas Republicans, with some of Cornyn’s own commenters accusing him of betraying the party.
Cornyn shares Rove’s Wall Street Journal opinion piece, titled Why I’m Voting for a Texas Democrat, without adding any additional commentary to the post. The article follows Rove’s announcement that he plans to vote for Rosenthal, breaking a decades-long pattern of almost exclusively supporting Republican candidates.
A former adviser to President George W. Bush and longtime Republican strategist, Karl Rove said his decision came after French posted an image showing predominantly South Asian students celebrating a University of Texas football victory. French suggested the students represented a broader problem involving foreigners, despite having no information establishing their citizenship or immigration status.
Cornyn had already publicly condemned French over the post, describing it as displaying “intolerance and racism” while also warning fellow Republicans against allowing such rhetoric to become normalized. French stood by his comments, while Cornyn continued criticizing him and asking other Republicans to condemn bigotry directed at fellow Texans.
The disagreement has now gone beyond Cornyn simply criticizing French’s social media activity, with it seeming as though other Republicans are beginning to join in on the conversation.
Comments and Reactions to John Cornyn Sharing Karl Rove’s Democratic Endorsement
Some of the commenters responding to Cornyn treated his decision to share the article as evidence that the senator was turning against his own party, with one writing, “Absolute traitor you are. No wonder your worst voting years were when Trump was in office. Because you’re owned.”
Others encouraged Cornyn to go further and explicitly support a Democrat himself, although some commenters incorrectly assumed Rove’s article was about Democratic US Senate nominee James Talarico rather than Jon Rosenthal, with one writing, “Have some courage and do the same, Senator.”
Ultimately, the reactions show how criticism of one Republican candidate has grown into a broader dispute within the Texas GOP. With Rove planning to cross party lines and vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal, and Cornyn now saying he won’t vote for French, the controversy has exposed clear disagreements among Republicans over how the party should respond to its own nominee. The heated reaction to Cornyn’s post shows those divisions are playing out among supporters as well.
