While Beto O’Rourke’s close-loss 2018 Senate bid put the Texas GOP on notice, one Republican lawmaker downplayed the now-Democratic presidential candidate’s claim he’s “unlocked” the Lone Star State for his party ahead of 2020.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a former chief of staff for Sen. Ted Cruz, who beat then-Rep. O’Rourke 51-48%, said his state hasn’t turned blue and isn’t on the cusp of doing so.
“I think that the Democrat view on Texas right now is a bit of irrational exuberance that is built on the back of the $80 million that was blown through Beto directly at Ted,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told the Washington Examiner.
Roy, a freshman lawmaker who served as Cruz’s chief of staff after his 2012 election, then worked for the Texas Republican senator’s PAC during his 2016 presidential campaign. Roy said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee targeting the district he represents, Texas’ 21st, covering the area north of San Antonio and parts of Austin. The R+10 district in 2016 backed Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, 53-43%.
Democrats are hoping to capitalize on momentum created last year in the state, flipping two GOP-held seats and sending Reps. Lizzie Fletcher and Colin Allred to Washington, ahead of the 2020 presidential cycle.
“In the district I represent, which is very conservative, you’d still see those hipster black-and-white Beto signs all over the place. There was a massive push on their side to do that, which I don’t believe reflects the year-in, year-out presence that you see at the polls,” Roy said. “And I think Republicans, it was a bit of a wake-up call to make sure they do their job. We’ve had nothing but statewides get elected for 20-plus years and significant Republican dominance, your infrastructure kind of atrophies a bit. I think that’s a needed wake-up call that you have to remain vigilant. It’s all about voter turnout. That’s the deal on Election Day, it’s vote turnout.”
Roy, who last month made headlines for temporarily blocking a $19.1 billion bipartisan disaster relief package that also had the support of President Trump, recognized that Republican losses in Texas were potentially exacerbated by the president.
“I think 2018 was an interesting cycle. It was two years into the Trump administration. You had this sort of push-and-pull that is Trump-centered on that, and you had Ted and Beto with $80 million being spent,” Roy said. “The election in 2020 is going to be very different than in 2018 because of the presidential cycle. It’s going to depend a lot on what the Democrats put forward. Is it Biden? Or is it somebody else? Is it somebody who, once it’s sort of exposed, is it going to be like Hillary or not?”
He warned, however, that the GOP’s electoral prospects in 2020 additionally depended on healthy economic figures and how Trump manages the immigration crisis unfolding at the southern border.
“He campaigned on it and right now, today, I don’t believe the border has ever been worse than it is today, so we better fix that,” Roy said of the president.
Texas Democrats contend the 2020 campaign in Roy’s district will be competitive. Manny Garcia, the Texas Democratic Party’s executive director, recommended that Roy “focus on his own re-election.”
“Poll after poll shows the same result: Texas is the biggest battleground state in the country and the focal point of the Democratic offensive strategy,” Garcia told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “We all know that once Texas goes blue, the Republican path to the White House will be blocked.”
