Sticking to similar themes from his 2018 campaign, Roy reiterated his focus on issues such as healthcare freedom, the national debt/spending, and securing the border.
Another topic Roy spoke at length on was the President’s designation of the Mexican drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” — Roy himself introduced a bill to encourage the State Department to do just back in the spring.
Roy’s campaign told The Texan there were over 300 people in attendance.
A spokesman for Roy’s campaign stated, “Last night’s campaign kickoff rally was a demonstration of what happens when you have a leader like Congressman Chip Roy who, once elected, does exactly what he said he would do.”
Sending a shot across the bow of his opposition, he added, “Our likely opponent in the general election is going to make noise, get attention, and raise a mountain of cash.”
“But with the help of liberty-loving Texans like we saw at last night’s rally, we’re going to raise the resources necessary to win on election day so Congressman Roy can get back to the important work the people of Texas have elected him to do,” he concluded.
The Cook Political Report rates Texas’ 21st Congressional District as “Leans Republican.”
Roy’s seat is one of the few dozen across the country that is specifically targeted by the Democratic Campaign Congressional Committee (DCCC), which spent over $4.5 million in 2018 Texas congressional races.
As of the third-quarter filing, Roy has over $1.2 million cash-on-hand after posting a haul of $574,000.
His opponent, former state senator Wendy Davis, raised just shy of $1 million but only has $600,000 cash-on-hand at the close of the last reporting period.
Davis took aim at Roy in a campaign release, “Corporate K Street lobbyists can always count on Congressman Roy to protect massive taxpayer giveaways to companies that ship American jobs overseas while voting against lowering prescription drug costs, common sense [sic] gun safety measures and tax relief for families of fallen veterans.”
She is backed by progressive Democrats looking to swing this piece of Texas blue.
Some organizations, like TX21 Indivisible, have been quite vociferous in their disapproval of Roy — even going so far as to temporarily derail one of his town halls over the summer.
Texas’ 21st Congressional District, which includes portions of Austin, San Antonio, and swaths of the Texas Hill Country, is set to be one of the most hotly contested in the Lone Star State, if not the entire country.
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Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson is a senior reporter for The Texan and an Ohio native who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2017. He is an avid sports fan who most enjoys watching his favorite teams continue their title drought throughout his cognizant lifetime. In his free time, you may find Brad quoting Monty Python productions and trying to calculate the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.
