The fourth-term congressman, who lost decisively to state Rep. Steve Toth, said baseless attacks about his alleged insider trading and gun stances fueled the upset.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw blamed unfounded attacks and a culture of misinformation for his primary loss to state Rep. Steve Toth, saying in an interview that the “power of clickbait” proved too much to overcome.

Crenshaw, a fourth-term congressman from Atascosita, lost to Toth, one of the most conservative members of the Texas Legislature, by a decisive 15-point margin, according to unofficial returns.

His district, which includes Kingwood, Lake Houston and The Woodlands, is split between Harris County and Montgomery County, a hotbed of conservative activism where Attorney General Ken Paxton received twice as many votes as incumbent John Cornyn in the Senate Republican primary.

Crenshaw acknowledged that the “telling the truth thing” is viewed as “a real crime” among some voters. But he heaped most of the blame for his loss on what he said were baseless attacks over his alleged insider trading and stance on red flag laws — leaving Crenshaw, in his eyes, to fend off talking points that twisted the truth.