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Bo French's professional history includes investment firms, energy-related work, and Craft International, the tactical and law-enforcement training business associated with Navy SEAL and American Sniper author Chris Kyle. Public records and contemporaneous reporting also document a Chapter 11 bankruptcy involving Craft, litigation with Kyle's widow, a later settlement, and a 2016 cease-and-desist dispute. Those events can be described from the record without treating allegations as proven facts.
Quick answer
Bo French co-founded Craft International with Chris Kyle and served as its chief operating officer. After Kyle's death, Taya Kyle sued French and others in a dispute involving the company; French disputed the allegations. Craft later filed for bankruptcy, and the dispute was eventually settled.
BallotReady's professional-history listing describes French as co-founder and chief operating officer of Craft International from 2010 to 2015.
In its 2016 reporting, The Texas Tribune described French as a business partner of Chris Kyle and said the two helped run Craft International, a law-enforcement training company. Dallas Business Journal described Craft as a Dallas-based company founded by Kyle.
Craft International entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in 2014.
An official U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing calendar identifies case 14-32605-11 as Craft International LLC and lists a disclosure statement and proposed plan of reorganization. Dallas Business Journal reported on June 4, 2014 that Craft had filed for bankruptcy and that court documents showed investors were owed more than $2.6 million.
The $2.6 million figure is a reported amount owed by the company to investors. The cited sources do not establish that it was French's personal debt, and this article does not characterize it that way.
After Chris Kyle was killed in 2013, his widow, Taya Kyle, sued French and another business partner.
The Texas Tribune reported that she alleged they had pushed her out of the company. French and his partner denied the allegation. The Tribune reported that the suit was later dropped and that the parties reached a settlement agreement in November 2014.
A later federal bankruptcy-court hearing calendar also lists a motion to compromise a controversy involving Craft International and creditor Taya Kyle, providing a court-record confirmation that the dispute and a proposed compromise were part of the bankruptcy proceedings.
In February 2016, lawyers for Taya Kyle sent French a cease-and-desist letter demanding that he stop using Chris Kyle's name and likeness in campaign materials.
According to The Texas Tribune, the letter said the 2014 settlement
“specifically included a provision that you (and others) not use Chris Kyle's name, likeness, logo or image.”
The letter accused French of violating that agreement. French disputed the accusation as it applied to his current campaign materials, telling the Tribune that he had reviewed the literature then in use and that Chris Kyle's name was not on those materials or on the campaign website. The Tribune also reported that a campaign mailer identified French endorser Jeff Kyle as Chris Kyle's brother.
Public candidate-profile data lists French as co-founder and chief operating officer of Verity Capital Partners from 2005 to 2006 and of Trugent Capital from 2007 to 2010.
A 2009 SEC Form D for Trugent Offshore Fund lists R.W. Bo French as a director of the general partner and shows him signing the filing in that capacity.
Those records establish French's roles and the dates reported for them. They do not, by themselves, establish that either Verity Capital Partners or Trugent Capital was formally dissolved. For that reason, this article does not describe both firms as “closed” or “failed” without a separate corporate record supporting that characterization.
Railroad commissioners exercise regulatory authority over major parts of Texas' oil and gas system, including production, pipelines, natural gas utilities, LP gas, and related safety and environmental rules.
The office therefore involves oversight and enforcement decisions affecting major energy infrastructure. The business history above is included as factual background on French's prior management experience; it does not establish how he would perform as a commissioner.
The economic scale is substantial, but the claim that the Railroad Commission regulates “a quarter of the state budget” is not supported by the current official revenue estimate. The Texas Comptroller's 2026-27 Biennial Revenue Estimate projects the oil production tax at 6.7% and the natural gas production tax at 3.0% of General Revenue-Related revenue. Those percentages describe specific tax sources, not the total economic value of the industry or the commission's full regulatory footprint.
Yes. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas identifies Craft International LLC as case 14-32605-11 and lists Chapter 11 reorganization filings. Dallas Business Journal also reported the bankruptcy in June 2014.
Dallas Business Journal reported that court documents showed investors were owed more than $2.6 million. The report concerns obligations of Craft International, not a finding that French personally owed that amount.
The Texas Tribune reported that Taya Kyle sued French and another partner, alleging they pushed her out of Craft. They denied the allegation. The suit was later dropped, the parties reached a settlement in November 2014, and a 2016 cease-and-desist letter alleged French was violating a settlement restriction involving Chris Kyle's name and likeness. French disputed that his current campaign materials were violating it.
They show French serving as co-founder and chief operating officer of Verity from 2005 to 2006 and Trugent from 2007 to 2010, and an SEC filing confirms his Trugent-related role in 2009. The sources reviewed here do not establish formal dissolution of both firms.
Election Day is November 3, 2026.