Top Republican Guru Sounds Alarm After Switching Sides

RICHARD BRIAN / REUTERS A top Republican operative has announced that the bigotry creeping through conservative politics is why he is breaking with his own party’s nominee in a marquee statewide race.

Karl Rove, the veteran GOP strategist who helped steer George W.

Bush to two presidential wins, previously said he would vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal over Republican Bo French in the race for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, the state agency that regulates oil and gas production.

It comes after an X post from French, a University of Texas graduate, who reacted to photos of students from his own college celebrating a football win by suggesting the crowd, made up largely of people of color, reflected a broader problem.

“I heard UT graduation this year looked like this,” French wrote.

“I didn’t believe it.

The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” Now, in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece , Rove has laid out why he’s crossing party lines for only the second time in his life.

He said: “The GOP has a growing number of Bo Frenches—and not only in Texas,” Rove wrote.

“Conservatism and the party it dominates have an increasing number of bigoted advocates of a ‘heritage America’ composed of white descendants of the original European settlers.

“There are ‘just asking questions’ Jew-haters, misogynists who worship hypermasculinity, conspiracy nuts seeking clicks for profit, and religious bigots who won’t differentiate between Muslim terrorists and Muslim American patriots.” He continued: “These people are diminishing the Republican Party, not building it.

I’ll have no part of it.

This November, I’ll vote for only the second Democrat in my life.

The first was Lt.

Gov.