“The hardest part is what to focus on,” Roy told The Hill. Picking one issue is just “campaigning 101.” But Roy, who is part of the RSC leadership team, said it’s still too early to know what issue will be dominating headlines and driving voters to the polls in 16 months. By this time in the 2020 cycle, two major historic events — the COVID-19 pandemic and the police killing of a Black man named George Floyd — had not even occurred yet. “Events determine elections,” Roy said. “If you had asked me last year in May whether I was going to run hard against ‘defunding the police’ against [Democrat] Wendy Davis in Austin, Texas, that wouldn’t necessarily have been on my front burner." “The summer unfolded and all of sudden, there’s your issue. Events drive politics, so be ready,” Roy continued. “We’ll keep working on things and as Democrats keep screwing up, we’ll pick the issue to pounce on when it’s appropriate.”