Jim Wright ran for the Railroad Commission of Texas six years ago as a reformer. But his reforms drew the ire of powerful oil tycoons who are now trying to unseat him.

Wright championed the first overhaul of oilfield waste rules in 40 years at the Railroad Commission, the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency. Some independent oil and gas companies criticized the rules change adopted last year. One of those companies, CrownQuest, brought a lawsuit against the Railroad Commission challenging its legality.

CrownQuest’s billionaire founder Tim Dunn is known for targeting Texas Republicans who he does not consider sufficiently conservative. He is now backing Bo French, a far-right candidate, to unseat Wright at the Railroad Commission.

French, former chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party, announced his campaign in November 2025 saying he would fight “radical climate change ideology” and “foreign capture” of the industry. Key issues the Railroad Commission regulates, including flaring, injection wells and waste pits, went unmentioned.

The Texas Freedom Fund for the Advancement of Justice, a Political Action Committee (PAC) supported by Dunn and fellow oil tycoon Farris Wilks, provided French with an infusion of cash in the final countdown to the March 3 primary. The PAC contributed $375,000 to French’s campaign, more than half his total haul.

In the five-person Republican primary, French finished less than half a percentage point behind Wright. The two now head to a May 26 runoff.

French’s campaign shows that Texas oil barons are paying close attention to policy debates within the commission. Wright, too, has taken generous contributions from oilfield executives and industry interest groups. He has long been accused of conflicts of interest by watchdog groups because he continues to hold stakes in oilfield companies while regulating the industry.

The winner of the runoff will face Democratic candidate Jon Rosenthal, a state representative from Houston, who has characterized the Republican race as a choice between “chaos and corruption.”

The French campaign and the Texas Freedom Fund did not respond to requests for comment.

“Commissioner Wright has always said he would base his actions on what he felt was best for the people of Texas and the long-term interests of our energy sector,” said his spokesperson Aaron Krejci. “That is what he has done and will continue to do so long as he is in office.”

The Railroad Commission, founded in the 1890s, began regulating the Texas oil industry in the early 1900s. The agency no longer regulates railroads and now oversees oil and gas drilling, gas utilities, pipeline safety and surface mining.

Texas is one of the few states to elect its oil and gas regulators, who serve staggered six-year terms. Top oil and gas producing states, including New Mexico, Oklahoma and North Dakota, all appoint their oil and gas commissioners. All three Railroad Commission seats have been held by Republicans for decades.

As a candidate, Wright touted his bona fides as the owner of several oilfield waste companies in South Texas and called to improve oilfield waste regulations. He upset incumbent Ryan Sitton in 2020. Once in office, he set out to update the antiquated oilfield waste rule, which had not been significantly changed since fracking revolutionized the industry.

The draft rules, released in 2024, attracted hundreds of public comments from oil companies, landowners and trade groups. One of the harshest critics was CrownQuest, whose vice president Luke Dunn, the son of founder Tim Dunn, submitted detailed public comments in October 2024.

“We do not think this can be surgically repaired and needs to be rewritten and reevaluated,” he wrote. “The uncertainty and complexity of these rules alone could cause massive backlogs in activity.”

The draft rules were modified—not fully rewritten—and the final version was adopted on July 1, 2025.

For the first time, the rules required drillers to register waste pits at drilling sites but stopped short of requiring them to notify landowners of the pits. Some argued that the rules did not go far enough and that Texas would still lag behind other states. Others said the rules would be onerous for small, independent companies.

CrownQuest, not satisfied by the final rule, brought a lawsuit in September against the Railroad Commission, alleging that the rulemaking was invalid. CrownQuest argued that the agency did not provide justification in response to public comments and that the rulemaking should have been treated as a major environmental rule.

So far the Railroad Commission has refuted the claims of the lawsuit. A hearing date has not been set. Lawyers for CrownQuest did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, Wright was up for reelection. Railroad Commissioners can fundraise throughout their six-year terms, so Wright had built up a sizable campaign fund entering the primary. Oil and gas executives Kelcy Warren of Energy Transfer, Autry Stephens of Endeavour Resources and Vicki Hollub of Occidental are among those who contributed to him while in office.

The incumbent candidate also collected endorsements from Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Oil and Gas Association PAC.

Entering the race in November, French had little time to catch up before the March primary. But he benefitted from name recognition among the far-right wing of Texas Republicans. French is best known for his inflammatory comments about Muslims and calls to deport Democratic Texas politicians and Native Americans. Many Republican state leaders distanced themselves from French last year after he posted a Twitter poll asking whether Muslims or Jews were “a bigger threat to America.” French later deleted the post.

Since announcing his campaign, French has not softened his rhetoric, posting multiple times a day about birthright citizenship and deportations.

He attracted his first $150,000 campaign contribution from the Texas Freedom Fund for the Advancement of Justice PAC in December. The PAC contributed another $225,000 in the final month before the primary.

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The PAC was formerly known as Defend Texas Liberty and is primarily funded by Tim Dunn and Wilks. Dunn and Wilks have spent tens of millions of dollars backing candidates and pushing state and national politics to the right, to fit their vision of conservative Christianity.

In 2023, Occidental purchased CrownRock, which owned the wells operated byCrownquest, for $10.8 billion. Tim Dunn was expected to net $2 billion, according to Bloomberg. Dunn was one of the largest donors to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Adrian Shelley, Texas director of the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen, said that without campaign finance reform, ultra-wealthy individuals like Dunn will be able “to get the government they want, not the one that everyday Texans would otherwise choose.”

“This one individual can wield enormous power, using his vast wealth to purchase the regulatory environment he wants and give outsized weight to his far-right, Christian nationalist ideology on a host of other issues,” Shelley said. “Dunn is just one of several fossil fuel magnates who call Texas home and are not shy about using their almost limitless resources to influence elections.”

Other Republican primary candidates included Hawk Dunlap, a well control specialist who has documented pollution problems around the state, and Katherine Culbert, who previously ran as a Democrat.

With nearly 2 million votes cast, Wright edged out French by only 6,000 votes. Wright performed well in rural Texas while French mostly picked up votes in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth metro areas.

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general now running for Senate, headlined a campaign event for French on April 6 in Fort Worth.

French’s campaign has decried so-called“Diversity Equity and Inclusion” spending at the Railroad Commission, in reference to the state’s Historically Underutilized Businesses program. The Texas comptroller froze the program last year and now only veteran-owned businesses qualify. Wright’s spokesperson said Railroad Commission contracts are given based on experience and getting the best price for taxpayers.

Most of French’s social media feed is still dedicated to posts against halal meat and calls to end birthright citizenship. But there are some clues to why he entered the race for the Railroad Commission.

“We have to lower the costly and unnecessary environmental regulations imposed on the industry last July,” French posted on March 29, referring to the reforms to oilfield waste regulation that Wright championed.

“Out of his four opponents in the primary, three said the reforms did not go far enough, and one said they went ‘too far,’” said Wright’s spokesperson. “I don’t think most Texans find it necessary for the commission to wait until Moses returns from the desert before reviewing and updating our rulemaking.”