The US' lower legislative chamber will convene Thursday at noon for a fresh showdown on California Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy’s bid for House speaker. The job is significant: the rest of the House cannot be sworn in until a speaker is in place, and that means no legislation, no House investigations, no lobbying, no politicking, no wheeling, and definitely no dealing.
Traditionally, the speaker selection process is a cinch, with the party with the most votes (in this case the Republicans) electing their party's senior-most member for the job. McCarthy has been House minority leader since 2019, was majority leader from 2014-2019, and before that, worked as majority whip from 2011-2014, coordinating proposed legislation within his party.
Republicans took the House in the 2022 midterms, securing 222 seats in the 435 seat chamber – four seats more than the 218 needed to form a majority. That means, in theory, that McCarthy should have been elected speaker Tuesday immediately after the new Congress convened.
What's the Holdup?
But there was a hitch. 20 GOP members of Congress voted against him, and one more voted "present," bringing his total support among Republicans to 201 in the latest round of voting. With Democrats also rejecting McCarthy’s candidacy, the California politician failed to secure majority support.
What happened? The core of the problem is the pro-Trump "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) wing of the Republican Party, which has transformed the party beyond recognition from what it was under Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush. Ever since New York real estate developer turned-celebrity gameshow host Donald Trump's election in 2016, the party has seen an influx of anti-interventionists, libertarians, and "America First" jingoists, who have challenged mainstream Republicans on issues ranging from foreign wars and border security to tariffs, taxes and the national debt.
While the majority of the party remains thoroughly entrenched in the Washington "swamp's" "uniparty" culture, i.e. the idea that both Democrats and Republicans are looking out for the interests of the economic, financial and military-industrial complex establishment, a small but increasingly vocal minority has stepped out in opposition.
Here's what the anti-McCarthy holdouts have in common: 19 are associated with the so-called House Freedom Caucus. Created in 2015 by lawmakers associated with the Tea Party, a fiscally conservative political movement pushing for lower taxes, lower spending, social conservativism, small government and general opposition to the US' enforcement of a "liberal world order," the Freedom Caucus has been described as the "farthest-right bloc" among House Republicans. Since Trump's election, the group has sided with the president and his promises to "drain the swamp," repeal Obamacare, defended him during Russiagates and his impeachments, and, after his 2020 loss – siding with him in the view that the election was "stolen" from him.
Key figures in the Freedom Caucus include Arizona Congressmen Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, and Texas Congressman Chip Roy. All five are among the 20 who voted to block McCarthy’s speaker bid. Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan are two more key members of the Freedom Caucus, but have not joined their comrades in pushing to get rid of McCarthy. More on that below.
What's the Group of Twenty's Beef With McCarthy?
The GOP rebels pushing for the long-shot ouster of McCarthy have criticized him for different reasons, and want different things. For some, it seems to be about bitterness over the midterm results, when the promised "red wave" failed to materialize to give Republicans total control of Congress..
"We've been trying to work this out in private…for months. But Kevin McCarthy didn’t even want to listen to us before his disappointing midterms. We all want a unified party. But this isn’t chaos. It’s a functioning constitutional republic," Lauren Boebert said in an interview Wednesday.
Boebert presented a laundry list of concerns about McCarthy, including his refusal to support a plan to shore up security along the border with Mexico, and said she simply does "not trust Kevin McCarthy to deliver at this point" on promises he's made, including border security, energy independence, and debt reduction.
Matt Gaetz hinted that some of the 20 holdouts, but not himself, could vote for McCarthy if he made concessions on membership in the rules committee and the appropriations committee – a pair of powerful legislative committees in the House which set the agenda for the flow of legislation, and which are tasked with regulating government expenditures.
"Remember, before this last [$1.7 trillion] omnibus Kevin McCarthy was paving the way for some of the worst legislation driving our country deeper into debt, and borrowing against the futures of the next generation, and so if we got control of those key committees in the hands of conservatives, I think there are some of the 20 who might vote for Kevin McCarthy," Gaetz said.
In a series of no-holds barred attacks on Twitter, Gaetz accused McCarthy of "selling out" to Washington’s powerful lobbyists, and claimed that the Republican was someone with "no ideology," but rather “a vessel through which lobbyists and special interests operate."
Chip Roy echoed Gaetz's sentiments about the committee appointments, recalling how the McCarthy-filled committees worked successfully to push through the omnibus in December.
"It's not an ideological purity test. This isn't about Kevin…When I hear assertions that say 'oh they gave you everything you wanted,' hold on a second. 72 hours to read a bill? That’s already the rule and it gets waived. You know how it gets waived? Because the rules committee is chock full of a bunch of establishment people who say 'oh, whatever we need to do to jam through the big spending bill that [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell just sent to us.' Look, when the leadership actually votes with the minority, votes with the Democrats, to steamroll Republicans, which is the past history of our Republican leadership, then maybe we should do something different,” Roy said in an television interview.
Roy also gave an impassioned speech Wednesday reiterating his concerns about McCarthy’s alleged spendthrift policies and the makeup of the rules committee.
"What we're doing is exercising our rights to vote and have a debate and have a discussion about the future of this country through the decision of choosing a speaker. This is not personal. It’s not. This is about the future of the country. This is about the direction of the country. American people who are looking at this body and wondering why we can pass $1.7 trillion bills that are unpaid for, that can just slide in $45 billion for Ukraine but not pay for it; $40 billion for emergency spending and not pay for it; a 10 percent increase in defense spending, a 6 percent increase in non-defense spending and not pay for it; and not do a thing except put language in a bill that prohibits our ability to use the money to secure the border. That bill gets rammed through, and we know exactly how it gets rammed through: because the defense world and the non-defense world come together and say 'you know what? We're gonna cut a deal, and we'll all go to the mics and we're all gonna give speeches, and the American people are the big losers," he said.
Congressman Andy Biggs echoed some of these concerns in an interview with Judge Napolitano on Wednesday. "We need to get somebody in office who is not so compromised. [Kevin is] compromised, [he is] weakened. And our conference is full of people who could adequately do this. There are some who would be exceptional. And if we do not change the course now, Judge, I fear this will actually further entrench the DC cartel, the uniparty as you call it. We cannot allow the K-Street lobbyists anymore, the bureaucrats anymore, nor can we allow those in the media to control what goes on in government."
What’s Trump Saying?
Mainstream Republicans have lambasted the 20 holdouts over their stubborn intransigence, with former Congressman Trey Gowdy charging them with looking "like a clown show on national television" and demanding that they "get behind Kevin."
Don Bacon, representative from Nebraska, said he’s heard the holdouts referred to as the "Taliban 20," citing "anger" among the majority of GOP lawmakers, "because we negotiated in good faith and gave a lot more than we ever wanted."
Donald Trump weighed in on the issue on Wednesday, urging the Freedom Caucus to get in line and "vote for Kevin, close the deal, take the victory and watch Crazy Nancy Pelosi fly back home to a very broken California." Trump's surprise endorsement for McCarthy, which came despite his personal bad blood with the politician over his assertion that the former president was "partially responsible" for the January 6 Capitol riots, came amid his concerns that Republicans risk turning their "great triumph" in the midterms "into a giant and embarrassing defeat."
Gaetz dismissed Trump's recommendation as "sad," saying it would not change his position on McCarthy, nor his continued support for Trump on other issues. As for Congressman Bacon’s "Taliban" label, Gaetz tweeted that "as hurtful and false as that is…I too am prepared for an extended battle that I will ultimately win."
Like Trump, MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene similarly urged Republicans to rally around McCarthy, accusing them of "playing Russian roulette with our hard earned Republican Majority" and warning of the possibility of a House "coalition leadership" consisting of both Republicans and Democrats. The "coalition leadership" idea is a reference to an idea floated by New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
What are McCarthy’s Options Now?
McCarthy's office has reportedly continued negotiations with the Freedom Caucus, reportedly yielding on a proposed rules change which would allow a single member of the House to call for a vote to replace the speaker, and promising to add Freedom Caucus members to the rules committee. The politician has also included a hint of stick alongside the carrot, allegedly threatening to keep people off committees if they don’t fall into line and vote for him.
One unlikely scenario would be for McCarthy to simply drop out of the race. Who his potential replacement might be is anyone’s guess, with the Group of 20 floating Jim Jordan (who endorsed McCarthy) on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, Representative Byron Donalds of Florida.
The Freedom Caucus holdouts have been accused of drawing names out of a hat, with Lauren Boebert suggesting she might nominate Donald Trump next. "Is this a game show? Like we’re gonna pick Jim Jordan one day, Trump the other day?" Fox news host Sean Hannity indignantly asked, scoffing at the suggestion.
"A game show would absolutely produce a better speaker than Kevin McCarthy. Game show participants don’t have to sell out to lobbyists," Gaetz retorted.