Karl Rove said he’ll break 30 years of only supporting Republicans to vote against “bigot” Bo French

Karl Rove, former adviser to President George W. Bush and longtime Texas GOP political consultant, said he will vote for Jon Rosenthal, a Houston Democrat running to serve the Texas Railroad Commission, after Republican Bo French posted racist comments on Sunday about South Asian students at the University of Texas at Austin.

Rove made the comments at a members-only lunch event at the Headliners Club in Austin, where he called French a “bigot,” according to three attendees to whom The Texas Tribune has granted anonymity to discuss the conversation.

Rove said he has only ever voted for one Democratic candidate, Texas Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, who was up for reelection in 1994.

Neither Rove nor French were immediately reachable to comment.

Late Monday, President Donald Trump said Rove was “bad” for Republicans and often wrong on the social media site Truth Social.

“He suffers from a major case of Trump Derangement Syndrome primarily because, for almost 10 years, I beat back and won against so many of the people and things that he wanted and espoused,” Trump said.

French came under fire Sunday for sharing a post on X showing a photo of the student section cheering a Texas Longhorn victory against Ohio State, referring to the students as “foreigners” who displaced Americans, without having any information about their status.

“I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,” French wrote, drawing excoriation from Democrats and Republicans alike, many of whom called on French to delete the post.

Earlier Monday, French doubled down on his comments and said Republicans who criticized him were “less conservative.”