Outgoing Rep. Chip Roy Blames GOP Establishment for 2026 Midterm Losses
Key Takeaways
- •Outgoing Rep. Chip Roy accused the Republican establishment of embracing corrupt figures at the top of the ticket, saying the party spent $500 million chasing one Texas race at the expense of others.
- •Roy urged the Senate to pass the SAVE Act, a congressional stock trading ban, and health care legislation before the next Congress convenes on January 3.
- •Vice President JD Vance attributed the midterm defeat to higher fuel prices from the Iran war, arguing Republican voters switched to Democrats, a view Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine shared.
- •Sen. John Cornyn wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that Trump is misreading the 2026 mandate, citing tariffs, hyperaggressive immigration enforcement, the Iran war, and projects such as the Reflecting Pool renovation.
- •Sen. Ted Cruz and former Sen. Mitt Romney also blamed tariffs and the prolonged Iran war, with Cruz citing cost-of-living struggles and Romney citing issues including blanket pardons, deficits, and abandoning allies.
Outgoing Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) sharply criticized his own party at the Heritage Foundation's event The Forum, accusing the GOP of nominating flawed candidates who cannot win even in reliably red states. The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Politico reporter Samuel Benson, covering the event at a Maryland convention center, noted on X: "Outgoing Rep. Chip Roy goes gloves-off re Ken Paxton."
"I'm p—— off at a Republican establishment that embraced corrupt people at the top of the ticket too often," Roy told the audience, remarks he also posted on X. "You can't win an election and beat corruption when you put at the top of your ticket in Texas someone that we knew to have massive issues … we spent $500 million trying to chase winning that one race at the expense of all the others."
Roy has continued pointing fingers throughout the week. In a brief appearance on Newsmax, he said Republicans could have won if the Senate had simply passed President Trump's SAVE Act. "The Senate didn't get the job done. They didn't pass the SAVE America Act. They didn't pass the Congressional stock trading ban. They haven't done what we need to do on health care. Let's all stay here, bind together, and get the job done between now and January 3," Roy told Newsmax. His January 3 deadline refers to the start of the next Congress, making the current lame-duck stretch the Senate's remaining window to take up the bills he named.
He is only the latest in a line of Republicans willing to speak out about the 2026 midterm failure and place the blame at the feet of their own party.
Vice President JD Vance, for example, blamed President Donald Trump's war in Iran for driving up fuel prices, according to an ABC News report. He argued that Republican voters switched to supporting Democrats rather than simply staying home, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine agreed with him.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is among the outgoing lawmakers alleging that his party clearly isn't getting the message. In an op-ed following the election published in The Wall Street Journal, he wrote that Trump is "misreading the mandate" from 2026. He blamed Trump for tariffs, "hyperaggressive immigration enforcement," the Iran war and distracting projects such as the Reflecting Pool renovation.
Sen. Ted Cruz told his podcast audience that he, too, blamed tariffs, the prolonged Iran war and Republicans' failure to address voters' cost-of-living struggles.
Former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a prominent Trump critic, made clear that he also believes the election failures were of the GOP's own making. "Bad policy, bad character make bad politics: erratic tariffs, impulsive Iran war, blanket pardons, apparent corruption, weaponized justice, ICE brutality, mountainous deficits, hiding Epstein, abandoning allies and coddling enemies. Hoping for a course correction, for the country and for my party," he wrote on X the following day.
