News about Jon Rosenthal

Republican Bo French (56) and Democrat Jon Rosenthal, a four-term state representative from Houston, are competing for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, the state's oil and gas regulator, in the Nov. 3 election. French's remarks about South Asian students at the University of Texas at Austin pushed the race into the national spotlight, and if Rosenthal wins he would be the first Democrat elected to the commission since the 1990s. Rosenthal pledges to pursue chronic polluters and create a fee on underground storage of oil and gas wastewater, though his fundraising has lagged behind previous Democratic candidates. French vows to lower electricity and gas prices, cut regulations and DEI programs, and let industry produce more oil, and he has not backed down despite criticism from his own party and the industry. The commission oversees a budget of about half a billion dollars.