Kevin McCarthy insists he WILL have the votes to be speaker
Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday insisted that despite a 30-some vote challenge from the conservative right to his leadership, he would win the speakership come January with a razor-thin majority in the House.
Asked if he would be speaker of the House come January, McCarthy said: ‘Yes.’
He noted that former Speaker Paul Ryan lost 43 votes in the the caucus’ November leadership vote but turned around and won the speakership in January. ‘Nancy Pelosi lost 32 votes and no one was even running against her,’ he added.
‘We have our work cut out for us, we’ve got a small majority. We’ve got to listen to everybody in our conference,’ McCarthy added. ‘We’ll find a way to make it happen.’
The GOP leader added that he respects ‘each and every’ member of his caucus ‘equally,’ despite their uproar over his leadership.
Rep. Bob Good, who is against McCarthy’s leadership, told reporters after the vote that 36 Republicans voted against McCarthy, 31 voting for Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and five voted for others who were not in the running. Other sources in the room said the final count in the closed-door meeting was McCarthy Biggs 188-31.
GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, Fla., a vocal opponent to McCarthy’s leadership, had a different prediction for the speakership: ‘To believe that Kevin is going to be speaker, you have to believe that he’s going to move votes in the next six weeks that he couldn’t move the last six years.’
Asked if he would be speaker of the House come January, Kevin McCarthy said: ‘Yes’
‘We have our work cut out for us, we’ve got a small majority. We’ve got to listen to everybody in our conference,’ McCarthy added. ‘We’ll find a way to make it happen’
McCarthy promised that under his leadership, ‘The House is going to change.’
‘No longer is all the power going to rest the way Nancy had it. No more proxy voting. Bills will actually go through committees. They will be debated before they actually come to the floor,’ he added.
The GOP leader answered ‘no’ when asked if he wanted Democrats to support his bid for speaker. ‘We’re the majority as Republicans, we’ll get their as Republicans.’
He claimed he did not know anything about a report that his allies had called conservative Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar asking him to switch parties in exchange for favorable committee assignments to widen the GOP majority in the House.
So far Republicans are only leading by 1 House seat, meaning if McCarthy loses every Democratic vote he cannot afford to lose any Republican votes. The GOP is expected to pick up a bigger lead as the lagging 12 outstanding races are called.
McCarthy found an unlikely ally in Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who spoke to reporters after McCarthy and said she would help whip the House Freedom Caucus behind his bid.
‘I’ll be talking with all of my colleagues and explaining my reasons for supporting him,’ she said. McCarthy has promised her spots on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees – two powerful panels if Republicans carry through on their threat to investigate President Joe Biden and his administration.
Rep. Andy Biggs challenged McCarthy in a show of force from the conservative wing of the party, which wants a strong voice on committees and political decisions in the coming two years of GOP power.
He acknowledged ahead of the contest that will be tough to beat the California Republican.
‘It’s going to be tough,’ Biggs, a Republican from Arizona, told Newsmax. ‘Kevin has raised a lot of money and done a lot of things, but this is not just about Kevin. I think it’s about institutional direction and trajectory, and that’s where we’re going to see if we have enough people who agree that we need to change the trajectory of this place and open it up.’
In other leadership races, Steve Scalise was elected to the GOP’s Number Two spot in leadership. In the race to replace Scalise, R-La., as whip, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the current National Republican Congressional Campaign (NRCC) chair, beat out Republican Study Committee chair Rep. Jim Banks and Rep. Drew Ferguson.
Tasked with helping Republicans across the board win to get to a majority, Emmer was able to overcome his party’s lackluster showing in the midterm elections to cinch the role.
McCarthy is now tasked with wrangling dozens of votes back in his favor before the speaker’s race at the start of the new Congress in January. All Democrats are expected to vote against him for speaker, meaning he can only afford to lose one less than however many the Republicans end up holding the majority by.
’31 votes against. Big opposition. Kevin McCarthy does not have the votes to be Speaker of the House,’ Rep. Matt Gaetz taunted on Twitter.
Earlier he said there were at least five members of the GOP caucus who would ‘rather be waterboarded by Liz Cheney’ than vote Kevin McCarthy for speaker.
In the race for House GOP Conference chair, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., was able to fend off a challenge from Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., 144-74 and hold on to her seat.
Kevin McCarthy overcame a challenge from the conservative right to his leadership and secured the top spot among House Republicans
Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona failed in his bid to topple McCarthy
Republicans were shaken when a red wave failed to appear in last week’s election, a move that endangered the leadership of McCarthy and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.
Democrats retained their control of the Senate. Republicans, however, are one seat away from winning the 218 seats necessary for the majority in the House.
McCarthy worked to shore up his support among House Republicans ahead of Tuesday afternoon’s meeting, particularly among the right flank, which is where Biggs had his strength.
If he prevails as speaker, he will need conservatives in his pocket in order to move any legislation through the House. Republicans are expected to have a narrow majority when they are in power and McCarthy will need every GOP vote.
Any faction of dissent would have substantial influence to block legislation or otherwise defy the Republican leadership. The right wing appears to be ready to exert their influence – much as liberals did to Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she had a narrow majority.
Conservative Freedom Caucus lawmakers are demanding concessions from McCarthy in return for their support.
They have have a long list of asks – from prime positions on House committees to guarantees they can have a role in shaping legislation.
On Monday, McCarthy met with House GOP lawmakers for two hours in the Capitol to make his pitch.
‘The one thing you got to think about is it´s going to be a tight majority so everyone is going to have to work together,’ he said afterward.
‘We’ll be successful as a team and we´ll be defeated as an individual if we don’t all work together,’ he said.
Some in the House GOP Conference have made it clear McCarthy does not have their support.
‘There are definitely at least five people, actually a lot more than that, who would rather be waterboarded by Liz Cheney than vote for Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House. And I am one of them,’ Gaetz said on Charlie Kirk show.