Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw blamed his campaign defeat on “misinformation” about state Rep. Steve Toth’s risky behavior in the stock market.
Crenshaw said voters were told he made millions through insider trading, but that was not the case.
“A big part of this election is about the power of clickbait. Memes become truth. Too many people don’t discern through clickbait,” Crenshaw told reporters, according to Mediaite.
“The people who voted – one after another – really believed that I made millions of dollars in the stock market through insider trading. Even though I hadn’t traded in three years. I made less than $46,000 during my entire seven-year tenure. The truth doesn’t matter to people,” he added.
House Republicans have revived a push to ban insider stock trading, a move that has bipartisan support in Congress and the president’s approval.
In January, lawmakers in the Lower House introduced a bill sponsored by Chairman Brian Steyer (R-Wis.) that would allow members of Congress, their spouses and their dependent children to keep the stocks they already own but prevent them from buying new ones.
However, no action has been taken on the bill since then.
Steyer’s bill is still awaiting a vote in the House. However, Democrats are likely to oppose the legislation because it does not ban the president, vice president and their families from stock trading.
Crenshaw said the false narrative that he and members of Congress bought and sold stock based on material nonpublic information was a failure of his campaign.
“First of all, about 20 percent of Republican voters are even willing to vote in the primary, and then there are dozens of online smears and conspiracies that people actually believe when they go into the polls. Believe me, it’s worth millions of dollars through insider trading. No matter how many times we think we’ve debunked it, or other people and influencers and things that haven’t debunked it, all of these things, people still believe it,” Crenshaw said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“The lesson to be learned is that you have to get to the bottom of it. You have to try. But ultimately this is a question for the American people: Are you going to believe everything you read online or that is sent to you in the mail?” he added.
The ousted Texas representative also accused Democrats of replicating misinformation aimed at him and warned it was a “lesson” for Republican politicians and voters.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports and streaming video, head to The Hill.