Bo French, a Texas Republican running to lead a powerful state agency, has a history of making controversial social media posts, including calling for the public execution of Democratic leaders, according to a recent investigation from CNN’s KFile team.

French, who is running to lead Texas’s railroad commission, has recently faced criticism from members of his own party after making a racist post on social media. Powerful Republicans, including the Texas senator John Cornyn, said they would not support French in the upcoming election.

But the latest spat over French’s social media has led to a deeper look at his online history. In a review of old posts from social media accounts that seemingly belonged to French, CNN’s KFile team found that the Texas Republican repeatedly called for public executions of opponents.

In 2020, French used a now-suspended X account to seemingly call for the execution of former president Barack Obama and other Obama administration officials that he believed had disseminated false information about Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election.

In February 2025, French used his X account, under a former handle, to call for other public executions, including Senator Adam Schiff.

The Guardian has asked French’s campaign for comment.

French is no stranger to posting controversial statements online.

Over the last year, he has used his platform to assert that the entire religion of Islam should be banned; claim childless women were “selfish” and “responsible for the demise of our culture”; and posted a poll to ask whether “Jews” or “Muslims” posed a bigger threat.

According to CNN/KFile’s investigation, in May 2020 French used an account under the name “rwbofrench”, which has since been suspended, to encourage Donald Trump to “hang” Obama-era officials believed to be part of the “Russia hoax”.

The posts came after Trump accused Obama administration officials of “treason” to dismiss reports that Russia tried to interfere with the 2016 presidential election to assist Trump.

In response to Trump’s “Drain the Swamp” post, French wrote: “I agree. But you can not do that until your DOJ charges and prosecutes the treasonous bastards who spearheaded the Russia hoax. The death penalty for the Obama conspirators will be the only thing that pulls the stopper out of the drain. #HangEmHigh.”

Minutes later, French responded to another social media user who accused Obama of running the Russia interference, seemingly promoting the death penalty for the former president.

“The penalty for treason used to be death. Even for a former president. #HangEmHigh,” French wrote.

It was unclear why the account was suspended.

In another instance of calling for public executions, French used his current social media account, under the former handle “Bo_French_TX”, to call for the death of government officials identified by Elon Musk’s Doge team.

“I want more than perp walks. I want public executions,” French wrote in a now-deleted post from February 2025.

In another post, French called for the public execution of Schiff, who led the House committee that released the report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

It was unclear whether the latest social media posts were deleted by French or a member of his team.