Kevin McCarthy’s Journey Is Just Beginning

He remains House GOP leader, but that doesn’t guarantee him the speaker’s gavel.

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Rep. Kevin McCarthy on Capitol Hill Tuesday. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

California Rep. Kevin McCarthy is one step closer to becoming speaker of the House of Representatives after easily being elected leader of the chamber’s Republican conference. Yet he still has a lot of work to do.

“I’m proud to announce the era of one-party Democrat control in Washington is over,” a buoyant McCarthy told reporters Tuesday. He had just emerged from an hours-long caucus meeting in which House Republicans chose their leadership team for the 118th Congress.

McCarthy garnered 188 votes in the secret ballot contest while 31 Republicans backed his challenger, Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs. Five votes went to other candidates, according to Rep. Bob Good, a Virginia Republican.

McCarthy only needed a majority of House Republicans to support him Tuesday. In January the House will vote to install a speaker, and he’ll need a majority of the entire chamber (218 votes, unless some members are absent or vote present). That means the Californian has to win over the most hardline Republicans to secure the top spot, with little margin for disagreement given how slim the majority is expected to be. It’s likely such a feat won’t be accomplished without doling out some concessions to his most recalcitrant critics.

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  1. Safety Cone

    What's the history on the process, why now, why not after new members seated in January?

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    Pat @ Tavi Hall

    I don't get McCarthy at all. Suppose he lobbies the normals hard, pumps them up, but while he might listen to the crazies, he promises them nothing. If it's a McCarthy Pelosi choice, they can decide. I imagine they might pass, but if so who's speaker for the next two years?

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  3. FlyEagles

    My understanding, and I would really like to know if it's not correct, is that in Speaker elections, the R's nominate someone, the D's nominate someone, and the ultimate vote is limited to those two. So if there is to be a wild-card entrant, such as Liz Cheney, the Dems would now have to nominate them given that the R's have nominated Kraven McClownShow. Is that right?

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    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    The ringmaster isn't yet quite dressed. But he's already been forced, stumbling, into the center ring, and he is cautiously approaching the extra-large industrial dumpster centered therein, which is lit by spotlights from all around the Big Top.

    Did I mention that the dumpster, and therefore the ringmaster, are 80 feet above the marble floor, balancing precariously on a high wire, with no net? His balance is so tenuous that it could be upset entirely by a single outbreak of food poisoning at one lunch table visited by members of his caucus.

    If you can conceive of a highly toxic and flammable substance, you may be reasonably assured that it is included among the contents of that dumpster. The ringmaster's very first task will be to throw it open to public view. And by law, the circus must officially begin at noon on Tuesday, January 3, 2023.

    But the law does not prevent that dumpster from igniting prematurely.

    This may all end with Capitol Hill being declared a CERCLA Superfund hazardous waste site. But if you're into gallows humor — and, especially, keep your sense of proportion, because with the WH & Senate in Dem hands, the House will be relevant for nothing but its potential to block legislation anyway — there is guaranteed to be a two-year run of continuous entertainment. (Cue the Boots Randolf "Yakety Sax" theme music from "The Benny Hill Show.")

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  5. Brook

    I realize that books have been written on this topic and that there are many different theories, but I am nonetheless constrained to ask: How the hell do adults nominate and elect people like Matt Gaetz?

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    1. Jamesorourkeackerman

      Gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is how the Gaetzs and Greenes and the Jordans get elected to Congress or state houses.

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      1. Brook

        I agree. But, still, even in a safe district, I still am baffled that the voters settle on someone like Gaetz.

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  6. Krbrady1919

    Anytime I'm experiencing stress on the job over the next few years, I'll think to myself, "At least I don't have McCarthy's job!" And he deserves every last pang of anxiety, that spineless weasel.

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    Kwasi_Broni

    I'm the opposite of a Kevin McCarthy fan, but if you've lost Matt Gaetz you're actually winning.

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    1. Very Old Grumpy Guy

      Cruel, but true.

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