The U.S. representative for Texas’ 10th congressional district spoke Saturday at the Texas Tribune Festival, the Texas Tribune’s annual journalism conference, in a one-on-one discussion with Gabby Birenbaum, a Tribune reporter.
At the event, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, discussed isolationism within the Republican Party and said it is more important now than ever to work with Democrats to pass bipartisan bills and get more work done. McCaul is finishing up his last term in Congress after he announced in 2025 that he would not run for reelection in the 2026 midterms.
McCaul represents parts of Central Texas, College Station and some northern suburbs of Houston. His district represented portions of neighborhoods surrounding UT until redistricting in 2021. McCaul, who has served as a congressman since 2005, chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 2023 to 2025 and the Homeland Security Committee from 2013 to 2019.
“I think it’s a dangerous concept that we can just isolate ourselves from the world and stop being the leader of the free world, which I think is a responsibility we have that we can’t shrink from,” McCaul said.
McCaul introduced the CHIPS for America Act to Congress in 2022, which invested billions of dollars into boosting the domestic semiconductor manufacturing market. McCaul said he participated in roundtables hosted by UT, with University leadership and semiconductor experts.
“With the University of Texas and the semiconductor (industry), everything we do for the CHIPS Act, (was useful in) getting a lot of research and development here in Austin,” McCaul said. “I was always drawn by technology in Congress because this is a high-tech city. That was part of a lot of the federal funding I have for A&M overall’s campus on a lot of their space force or hypersonics.”
McCaul said that while he always votes for the Republican Party, there are people on the Texas Republican ticket that are “not ideal,” including those on the midterm ballot like Attorney General Ken Paxton, running for U.S. Senate, and Bo French, who is running for Texas Railroad Commissioner.
“These two candidates, they’re definitely going to be a drag on the ticket down ballot, and I still think this is a red state, but we’ll see what happens,” McCaul said.
