Kevin McCarthy's Rocky Comeback
After dropping out of the race for Speaker of the House in 2015, the California congressman has now won the designation from the Republican Party. But his victory is far from guaranteed.
This is a response to The Kevin McCarthy Scandal.
California congressman Kevin McCarthy cinched the Republican party's nomination for Speaker of the House this past Tuesday, but it's unclear whether he'll earn enough votes to secure the position.
McCarthy defeated challenger Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona in a closed door, 188-to-31 vote, according to the Washington Post. While this might seem like a landslide victory, it reveals a new struggle for congressman McCarthy: earning the 218 Republican votes he needs to become House Speaker.
Without those 31 votes, McCarthy is in danger of dropping out of the race. Hard-line conservative Republicans made up most of the representatives that voted for his challenger, Biggs. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a vocal McCarthy critic, implied in an interview with NBC News that the California representative has slim chances of winning over Republicans who didn't support him in his previous failed Speaker run in 2015.
McCarthy has seven weeks until the January elections. He'll need to win over the support of ultra-conservative members of his party, especially the 36 members of the Freedom Caucus. So far, his strategies to do that include attacking prominent members of the Democratic establishment.
"As Speaker—I will take action to fix what Nancy Pelosi so badly broke," McCarthy wrote on Twitter. "House Republicans' work begins immediately:
•Deliver on our Commitment to America
• Hold this Administration accountable
• Stop the Biden agenda."
Only time will tell whether McCarthy will be able to win the support of his fellow Republicans.
