Karl Rove told a private luncheon he would vote for a Democrat in a Texas statewide race.
The longtime Republican strategist made the announcement at Austin’s Headliners Club, a members-only venue, according to the Texas Tribune. Rove said he would cast his vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal over Republican nominee Bo French in the Texas Railroad Commission race. On his way out, he called French a bigot.
President Trump responded Monday night on Truth Social, and he did not hold back. According to a report, Trump labeled Rove a RINO, short for Republican In Name Only, and said Rove had been wrong too many times to be taken seriously. Trump also accused Rove of carrying Trump Derangement Syndrome for nearly a decade. The line that landed hardest: Rove is a “stone cold loser.”
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Trump went further, questioning why Fox News and the Wall Street Journal continue giving Rove a platform.
The fallout lands at an awkward moment for the Republican establishment. Rove built his reputation as the architect of George W. Bush’s presidential victories, but his relationship with the MAGA wing of the party has been deteriorating for years. His decision to back a Democrat in a Texas commission race, and to publicly label the Republican nominee a bigot, is the kind of move that makes that break official and very public.
The Texas Railroad Commission race is a down-ballot statewide contest, but Rove’s choice to cross party lines there carries outsized symbolic weight. For Trump supporters, it confirms what they have argued for years: that certain figures in the Republican consulting class were never truly aligned with the party’s base.
Trump’s Truth Social post framed Rove as someone whose judgment has been consistently off, and made clear he sees no reason why major conservative media outlets should treat Rove as a credible voice. The pointed call-out of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal suggests Trump wants those organizations to reconsider their relationship with the strategist.
For Rove’s part, his comments at the Headliners Club luncheon were not made in a vacuum. Calling a Republican nominee a bigot while announcing a vote for the opposing Democrat is a deliberate public statement, even in a members-only setting. The Texas Tribune’s reporting brought that statement into the open.
What happens next in the Railroad Commission race remains to be seen. But the exchange between Trump and Rove is now part of the record, and the “stone cold loser” line is not the kind of label that fades quickly in political memory.
