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GOP Rep. Chip Roy's Ridiculous Response to TX Flash Flood [1]

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Date: 2025-07-14

Texas GOP Representative Chip Roy–Questions About Texas’ Inadequate Flood Warnings are “Ridiculous”-- July 14, 2025

And the death toll from the Texas flash flood that occurred on the July 4, 2025 weekend keeps rising. At least 132 people have now died and more than 160 people are still missing. Kerr County, the hardest hit area in TX, includes 106 dead. At least 27 campers and counselors from the all-girls Christian Camp Mystic were among the dead.The search for the missing was disrupted over the weekend by another round of rain and flooding. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-floods-missing-people-death-toll-climbs/

On July 11, 2025 Donald and his wife Melania visited the stricken area. After the tour of this disaster zone, Trump held a round table packed with state and local officials. These included TX GOPers Gov. Greg Abbott, U.S. Senators John Cornyn, and Ted Cruz. Dr. Phil, a Trump supporting reality television star with Texas roots, was also present. Trump called this disaster, a “Hell of a situation, isn’t it?” Reality star Trump, turned to reality star Dr. Phil to give us “some of your words of wisdom.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/us/politics/trump-texas-flood-sites.html

Dr. Phil, not Donald, IMHO, is now really the nation’s “Comforter-in-Chief.” GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Chip Roy, whose district was located in the epicenter of the flood zone, praised the Trump administration for its response. Rep. Roy told Donald, “When I called you on Friday, you said, ‘Whatever you need.’ When I called the secretary’s office, she called me within 15 minutes and said, ‘Whatever you need.’ And then she came here this weekend. I’ve never seen such a quick response and such a focus on delivering for the people.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/us/politics/trump-texas-flood-sites.html A local reporter tried asking Trump about “several families we’ve heard from” who said warning alerts weren’t sent out soon enough, and that people died as a result, Trump responded, “Only a bad person would ask a question like that. To be honest with you, I don’t know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/us/politics/trump-texas-flood-sites.html

The national media, according to the NY Times, was largely barred from this round table. Pro-Trump social media influencers, however, were allowed to attend and they praised Trump and attacked Democrats for questioning his disaster response. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/us/politics/trump-texas-flood-sites.html

There have been many questions about how poorly Trump responded to this flash flooding. Trump himself has talked of eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and FEMA has lost about one-quarter of its full-time staff, including some of its most experienced officials. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/us/politics/trump-texas-flood-sites.html Trump praised a long list of TX GOPers. He had especially kind words for Rep. Chip Roy. Donald called Chip Roy a person “whose not easy, but he’s good.” That comment referred to Roy’s initially opposing his “Big Beautiful” (No, ugly) tax and spending cuts, but later voting for them. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/texas/2025/07/12/526299/trump-tours-central-texas-flood-sites-and-defends-officials-as-questions- Rep. Roy, just like Donald, similarly bristled at questions about the authorities’ flood response. Roy also called these questions “ridiculous.” https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/texas/2025/07/12/526299/trump-tours-central-texas-flood-sites-and-defends-officials-as-questions-

Let’s meet Rep. Roy.

Fourth-term GOP Representative Charles Eugene “Chip” Roy (52) presently represents Texas’ 21st Congressional District (CD). The recently redistricted TX 21st serves the area north of San Antonio and a significant portion of Austin.It has always been centered in the Texas Hill Country. It currently contains all of Kerr County, part of Travis County, parts of Comal County, and parts of Hays County as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//Texas%27s_21st_congressional_district The town of New Braunfels lies in the 21st, as well as Kerrville, Fredericksburg, and San Marcos. The Lone Star 21st also includes the northeast corner of San Antonio and Fort Sam Houston. The affluent northside neighborhoods of Terrell Hills, Alamo Heights, and Olmos Park are additionally in the 21st. The LBJ Ranch is in the 21st, where LBJ was born, vacationed, and is buried. https://thealmanacofamericanpolitics.com , 2024,National Journal, 2023, p. 1812. Now, however, this area, like most of TX and the rest of the South, is strongly GOP, and LBJ wouldn’t recognize its politics. The latest Cook Partisan Voting Index gives the 21st an R+11 score. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Roy

Born in Maryland to Texas natives, Roy received his law degree from the University of Texas. He became a federal prosecutor under U.S. Attorney John Cornyn. When Cornyn was elected to the Senate from TX, Roy became his senior aide and later became a top official for the TX Atty. General. Roy also served as a top aide to GOP Sen. Ted Cruz and GOP Gov. Rick Perry. Roy additionally worked on both of their presidential campaigns. In the private sector, Roy was an investment banker analyst and a top officer of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation. https://thealmancofamericanpolitics.com , 2024, National Journal, 2023, pp.1810-1811

Roy ran for an open TX House seat in 2018. After winning the GOP primary, he defeated his Democratic rival by just two points. In his first run for re-election in 2020, he defeated well known pro-choice advocate Wendy Davis, loathed by TX conservatives, by 6 points. In 2022, he clobbered his next Democratic rival by 25.6 percentage points, and in 2024 defeated another Democratic opponent by a similar 25.8% margin. https://thealmanacofamericanpolitics.com , 2024, National Journal, 2023 p.1811,

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/05/us/elections/results-texas-us-house-21.html ,

In the House, according to the Almanac, few members have frustrated their fellow colleagues more than Rep. Chip Roy. He is viewed as an unpredictable, contrarian conservative. Sometimes, in fact, fellow House members get worked up into a rage over Roy’s comments and actions. In 2021, he made many representatives furious when he suggested using “a rope and oak tree to remedy a mass shooting.” Two years earlier, Roy was one of the highest profile holdouts in Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) bid to become House Speaker, but later helped the anti-McCarthy rebels “negotiate” deals to briefly make him Speaker. https://almanacofamericanpolitics.com , 2024, National Journal 2023, p. 1810

Rep. Roy, along with two other hardliners, Andrew Clyde (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), were the only House members to vote against the Emmett Till Antilynching Act which easily passed the House. In the 117th Congress, Rep. Roy voted with Pres. Biden on issues only 1.8% of the time, according to an analysis by “FiveThirtyEight.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Roy

Roy is an anti-immigration hardliner and has received endorsements from the anti-immigration groups NumbersUSA and the Federation for American Immigration Reform. In fact, in 2024, Roy defended Donald’s plan “to deport 20 million people.” Roy wrote on X that he wanted to deport “white progressive Democrats.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Roy

He was one of 14 GOPers to vote against the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act which passed the House 415-14. He is a member of the extremist Freedom Caucus and the influential House conservative Republican Study Committee. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Roy

In 2021, he had a 5% rating from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and a zero score from labor’s AFL-CIO. https://almanacofamericanpolitics.com ,2024 National Journal 2023 p.1810

To most of us, of course, Rep. Roy’s stands on the issues are as “ridiculous” as his defending Donald for his “handling” of the TX flash flood. However, don’t bet on Roy’s “rock ribbed” GOP district blaming him for his failure to prepare for such a disaster, all too common in this area. Rep. Roy can probably get re-elected from the Lone Star 21st as long as he wants. However, according to the Almanac, Rep. Roy is very popular within libertarian and conservative circles, and should a Senate seat open up in Texas, Roy would likely be a serious contender for that position. https://almanacofamericanpolitics.com , 2024, National Journal 2023, p. 1811





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