Chip Roy


Charles Eugene "Chip" Roy is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Texas's 21st congressional district. A member of the Republican Party, Roy took office on January 3, 2019. Before his election to Congress, he was chief of staff to Senator Ted Cruz and as first assistant attorney general of Texas. A member of and policy chair of the House Freedom Caucus, Roy is considered a member of the most conservative faction of the House Republican Conference.
In August 2025, Roy announced his candidacy for Texas Attorney General in the 2026 elections.

Early life and education

Roy was born in Bethesda, Maryland, and raised in Lovettsville, Virginia. His parents, Don and Rhonda Roy, were conservatives who supported Ronald Reagan and helped shape Roy's political views.
After graduating from Loudoun Valley High School, Roy attended the University of Virginia, receiving a Bachelor of Science in commerce in 1994 and a Master of Science in information systems in 1995. There, he worked as a dorm resident assistant for a year. After graduation Roy spent three years as an investment banking analyst, after which he decided to pursue a different career. He enrolled at the University of Texas School of Law, where he met his future wife, Carrah. He graduated in 2003 with a Juris Doctor.

Early career

Cornyn staff

Though initially Roy saw politics "as an avocation, a sort of interest, but not something I would do anytime soon, if ever", his mind began to change when, while still in law school, he began working for then-Texas attorney general John Cornyn on his 2002 campaign for the United States Senate. After the September 11 attacks, Roy reflected on his goals. "I was in law school when September 11 happened. I will always remember that moment, crystallized in my head. That had a lot to do with my commitment to public service", he has said. When Cornyn was elected and made vice chairman of the Republican Committee and the Judiciary Committee, Roy served as his staff director and senior counsel. Roy provided counsel for Cornyn and his staff on legislative issues including nominations, intellectual property, crime, civil justice reform and advising him during the immigration reform debates under the George W. Bush administration. Roy worked for Cornyn until 2009.
Roy returned to Texas as a special assistant in the office of the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. In 2006, Roy met Ted Cruz, then Texas solicitor general, during a strategy session discussing the case League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, a case about redistricting that Cruz argued before the United States Supreme Court.

Perry administration

Roy resigned from his job as a special assistant U.S. attorney after six months to be a ghostwriter on then-Governor of Texas Rick Perry's 2010 book Fed Up! and work for Perry's 2012 presidential campaign. The book served as a campaign agenda for Perry's campaign, and offered a range of Perry's positions, including criticism of the Social Security system as unconstitutional, changing the election of U.S. senators back to state legislatures, ending life tenure for federal judges, and repealing the 16th Amendment. The book also denounces as "overreach" federal efforts to regulate health care, labor conditions, energy policy, and pollution. In the book's acknowledgments section, Perry singled out Roy for "special recognition" for resigning his previous post "to devote himself full-time to the completion of the original manuscript" and his "amazing knowledge of the U.S. Constitution and other Founding documents, and a keen ability to frame federalist arguments in striking terms that make complicated law easier for non-lawyers like me to understand and discuss." In his review of the book, Gene Healy of the libertarian Cato Institute credited Roy as "the guy who did most of the heavy lifting in the book."
On April 1, 2011, Perry announced Roy as his choice for Texas's director of state-federal relations, an office whose duties include lobbying for federal funds for state institutions.
During the confirmation hearings for his position before the Texas Senate, Roy said he would oppose an "intrusive federal government that spends our money recklessly." He promised to help Texas legislators "push back on Washington where necessary" and stand up for "liberty, state sovereignty and an end to the crippling pile of debt and regulation coming from Washington that is destroying our nation and endangering the state." When asked about the recent Texas House vote to slash most of the office's funds, transferring them to a tuition reimbursement program for children of the military, he said it was "hardly surprising…I might have voted to cut it as well, based on what I understand of the office, but possibly without hiding behind the political gamesmanship of moving it from one account to another." He promised to consider eliminating the entire office if it didn't "stand for something." Roy's nomination was opposed by Texas state senator Kirk Watson, who pointed out that the office's mission was "to promote communication and build relationships between the state and federal governments" and asked Roy "when you or someone else" decided to redefine its purpose. The committee approved Roy's nomination, 6–1, with the full State Senate later confirming the nomination. Roy served in the office from April to October 2011.
The week of his 39th birthday in August 2011, Roy was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin lymphoma. He later said his experience battling cancer convinced him of the importance of "health-care freedom", and that examining his medical bills showed him "how truly convoluted our system is."

Cruz staff

After Cruz's election to the Senate in 2012, Roy became his chief of staff. While working for Cruz, Roy gained attention for criticizing other Republicans who did not join Cruz in demanding Obamacare be defunded before voting to keep the government running past September 30, 2013. During the 2013 United States federal government shutdown, Roy's main tasks were behind the scenes, plotting a course through the media coverage and determining tactics when Republican allies deserted the cause and the party's leadership became increasingly hostile. Roy chastised defecting Republicans, and was quoted as saying Tom Coburn was serving in a "surrender caucus" and likening Mitch McConnell to Barack Obama. Cruz said Republicans who did not join him had fallen into "a powerful, defeatist approach…they're beaten down and they're convinced that we can't give a fight, and they're terrified." Their cause was joined by Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mark Meadows and Mike Lee.
The media picked up on Roy taking to Twitter to jab John McCain, sarcastically calling it "shocking" that "someone talking to Chuck Schumer| Schumer 5x a day and the White House daily" did not support the hardball approach. Coburn complained about these tactics to the Washington Examiner, saying: "The worst thing is being dishonest about what you can accomplish, ginning everybody up and then creating disappointment." Roy's response on Twitter gained media attention: "Since when is a promise to fight disastrous policy 'dishonest?' No, the worst thing is giving up & leaving your base believing there is no need to be a Republican any longer." Coburn told a reporter that he had "no ill will" toward Roy: "He knows I'm not part of the surrender caucus." He added: "a good portion of it is mandatory spending, and the only way to get rid of mandatory spending…is 67 votes because you got to override a presidential veto" and that Cruz's and Roy's tactics would result in the Democrats taking control of the House.
Roy told a reporter that his job was to advance Cruz's priorities, and he had not been told to stand down: "The Washington establishment uses every tool at its disposal to push its own narrative on the American public—and in this case, it's the narrative of 'we can't.' They plant stories, strong-arm members and try to create fake 'wins' for cover that simply do not change the status quo. It is important that we push back." In response to questions about Roy's behavior, McCain said, "He and Senator Cruz are entitled to their opinions, but I don't pay that much attention to that kind of thing because I believe my position. It wouldn't be the first person who has criticized me." Richard Burr, who supported defunding but not threatening to cause a shutdown, also was unmoved by Roy's quips: "It doesn't matter to me what he does. The only thing that's important is that I'm on Senator Cruz's bill to eliminate Obamacare."
On September 25, 2013, Cruz and Roy met with trusted staffers and Cruz read aloud from Psalm 40 and then took to the Senate floor for a 21-hour speech against Obamacare. Despite such efforts the shutdown did not result in the desired policy change: the Republican leadership brokered a deal with the Democrats, reopened the government, and Obamacare funding was only marginally affected. Politico called Roy an "architect" of Cruz's strategy, and he later told a reporter, "Was I intimately involved with it? Yes. Unapologetically. I think it was the right strategy. And but for the same hand-wringers in the Senate that continue to give us the status quo, we might have been successful."
In September 2014, as Cruz contemplated a 2016 presidential campaign, Roy's duties in his office moved from chief of staff to top political strategist. During the exploratory phase of Cruz's campaign, Roy and Cruz got into an argument about political tactics and strategy that became heated enough to cause Roy to leave Cruz's Senate staff. Despite the level of disagreement, they discussed working together in the future. Cruz later recalled, "We often agreed, but not always, and we would have vigorous debates. Chip never backs down, and we would have extended discussions about which battles should be the highest priority."