Texas Republicans excuse bigotry all the time. This time they couldn’t.

(RNS) — Here’s a surprise: Some Texas Republican leaders have actually criticized one of their own political candidates for bigotry.

Bo French is a R epublican candidate for a seat on the Railroad Commission of Texas , the state agency that “regulates” the state’s oil and gas industry. On Sunday morning (Sept. 13), French posted comments on X that featured a photo of University of Texas students who look to be of South Asian descent exultantly cheering their football team’s victory over No. 1-ranked Ohio State. “I heard UT graduation looked like this,” he wrote. “I didn’t believe it. The problem is obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” In case anyone was unclear, he later explained he was referring to “foreigners.”

An hour later, outgoing Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn leapt into action. “This is the Republican nominee for statewide office,” he wrote over a re-post of French’s missive. “Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized. This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad.”

Some Republican state representatives quickly followed suit . “ Please delete this,” asked…