Republican Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) had some choice words for the Republican Party establishment and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after Democrats won back the House and Senate and several other critical races in the midterm elections.
Roy spoke on a panel at the Heritage Foundation’s post-midterm conference on Wednesday and railed against the establishment for embracing Paxton despite his history of corrupt conduct.
During his remarks, he discussed people’s anger about artificial intelligence data centers.
“You know why people were pissed off about data centers?” the lawmaker said. “I can tell you because I was campaigning statewide in Texas. They were pissed off not because of water and electricity. That was a small part.”
It was because you have AI bosses, including Elon [Musk], saying, ‘don't worry, you're going to lose your job in 10 years. You're going to have universal wage while your kids are addicted to porn and your kids are addicted to sports gambling. And you're going to have this big box in your backyard and you're going to like it because we got to beat China.’
“You know what the American people did?” Roy asked. “They said that,” he continued, putting his middle finger in the air.
“And you know what? I was kind of with them. I got to be honest with you. I'm a little pissed off. I'm pissed off at a Republican establishment that embraced corrupt people at the top of the ticket too often,” the lawmaker said. “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.”
And then, by the way, spend $500 million trying to chase winning that one race at the expense of all the others. That's about power seeking. That's about power grabbing. You can't win an election when you make the first thing you do after the big beautiful bill be about redistricting. With all due respect to the political operation in the White House, You messed up.
Outgoing Rep. Chip Roy goes gloves-off re Ken Paxton “I’m pissed off at a Republican establishment that embraced corrupt people at the top of the ticket too often. 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.”
— Samuel Benson (@sambbenson) November 11, 2026
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who lost the runoff primary election to Paxton, lamented that “traditional conservatives and independents were asked to swallow an almost comical list of personal scandals and improprieties.”
Paxton’s issues are a matter of public record. He was indicted in 2015 on felony securities fraud charges. The case ended in a 2024 deal that dropped the charges.
The Republican-led Texas House impeached him in May 2023, but the state Senate acquitted him that September.
In October 2020, several of Paxton's top executive deputies reported him to the FBI, alleging he abused his official authority to assist real estate developer and political donor Nate Paul in exchange for bribes and personal favors — including renovations to Paxton's home and employment for a woman with whom the attorney general had an affair.
These whistleblower complaints kicked off a series of firings, culminating in a whistleblower lawsuit that resulted in a $6.6 million judgment against Paxton's office.
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