Opposition to Kevin McCarthy’s bid for House Speaker is growing after nine Republican members wrote a stinging letter warning how electing him would be more of the status quo ‘dysfunction’ in the lower chamber.
The group said that McCarthy had 14 years in House GOP leadership, and lamented that his election could mean a ‘continuation of past, and ongoing, Republican failures.’
On Sunday, McCarthy held a private conference call with Republicans in an attempt to garner support for his speakership vote on Tuesday, January 3, which is when the new Congress takes office.
While McCarthy can only afford to lose four votes if he wants to clinch the Speakership, the call appeared to worsen his outlook from five dissenters last week to 14 total just 24 hours before the vote.
The Republicans who pledged to vote against McCarthy are Representatives:
- Scott Perry of Pennsylvania
- Paul Gosar of Arizona
- Chip Roy of Texas
- Dan Bishop of North Carolina
- Andy Harris of Maryland
- Andrew Clyde of Georgia
- Representative-elects Andy Nogales of Tennessee
- Anna Paulina Luna of Florida
- Eli Crane of Arizona
On New Year’s Eve McCarthy wrote a letter entitled ‘Restoring the People’s House and Ending Business as Usual,’ where he admitted to dysfunction in the House of Representatives and pledged to make it right.
‘For someone with a 14-year presence in senior House Republican leadership, Mr. McCarthy bears squarely the burden to correct the dysfunction he now explicitly admits across that long tenure,’ the nine GOP members wrote in their letter.
They added that his ‘statement comes almost impossibly late to address continued deficiencies ahead of the opening of the 118th Congress on January 3rd.’
‘At this state, it cannot be a surprise that expressions of vague hopes reflected in far too many of the crucial points still under debate are insufficient. This is especially true with respect to Mr. McCarthy’s candidacy for speaker because the times call for radical departure from the status quo – not a continuation of past and ongoing, Republican failures,’ the letter stated.
‘McCarthy’s statement also continues to propose to restrict the availability of the traditional motion to vacate the chair as a means of holding leadership accountable to its promises; we have from the beginning made clear that we will not accept following Nancy Pelosi’s example by insulating leadership in this way,’ the nine House GOP members said in their letter on Sunday.
‘We also note that the statement fails completely to address the issue of leadership working to defeat conservatives in open primaries. The progress made thus far has been helpful and should guide our thinking going forward.’
Members of the House Freedom Caucus, the most conservative group in the House, led the calls for a shake-up in leadership. Rep. Andy Biggs, a former chairman of the caucus, had launched a bid against McCarthy within the party to be the nominee for Speakership, but was defeated in a secret ballot.
Biggs of Arizona, along with Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Bob Good of Virginia and Matt Rosendale of Montana were all part of the initial ‘Never Kevin’ lawmakers publicly expressing their plans to vote against McCarthy in the January 3 elections.
While Perry is vice chair of the Freedom Caucus, the current chairman and co-founder of the caucus, Representative Jim Jordan, is an ally of McCarthy.
He could be the only person who can get through to the detractors.
In recent weeks, Jordan has gone to bat for McCarthy by arguing on several right-leaning media outlet interviews that the current GOP Leader deserves the gavel.
The five original ‘Never Kevin’ lawmakers have organized to prevent McCarthy from garnering the 218 votes needed to take the gavel from outgoing Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
They have also vowed not to be picked off individually by McCarthy and said they would discuss any concessions he offers.
McCarthy announced on the private call Sunday evening that he would give into one of the top demands from detractors, which is shrinking the threshold needed to vote out the Speaker in exchange for his ascent to the position.
Under the current rules, only a member of the House leadership can initiate a motion to remove the Speaker, but McCarthy’s proposal would allow any House member to force a vote to remove the Speaker at any time.
Currently, only members of House leadership are able to do so, under rules implemented by Pelosi.
