Rep. Chip Roy is betting that the Texas electorate hasn’t changed that much.
Democrats contend that shifting demographics in the Lone Star State and a favorable political environment nationally can help them beat up to seven House Republicans in Texas. That’s including Roy, 48, who was first elected in 2018 to a district running from north of San Antonio to the state capital of Austin.
Roy faces former state Sen. Wendy Davis, a one-time doyenne of the Left in Texas whose political stock dropped considerably after losing the 2014 governor’s race in a landslide. Davis is seeking a political comeback against Roy, as the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is running competitively in Texas and GOP Sen. John Cornyn faces a tougher-than-expected race against Afghanistan War veteran M.J. Hegar.
Roy is fighting for reelection in the mold of his former boss, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the runner-up to President Trump in the 2016 GOP primaries. Like Cruz, for whom Roy was chief of staff and then backed in the presidential race through an outside group, Roy is unafraid to offend colleagues on either side of the aisle in pursuing principles of fiscal discipline and other conservative goals.
In 2013, Cruz forced a partial government shutdown by filibustering a Senate bill to fund Obamacare, and in May 2019, Roy was the only House member to raise procedural objections delaying passage of a request for unanimous consent for a $19.1 billion disaster aid package for damage caused by Hurricane Harvey. That stalled the bill’s consideration for 11 days before it passed 354-58, with Roy voting against it.
