McCarthy next up to steer GOP in House
Seven-term Californian easily wins an internal party election Wednesday.
WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy easily won an internal party election Wednesday to take over the shrunken House GOP caucus, handing the seven-term Californian a familiar role of building the party back to a majority as well as protecting President Donald Trump’s agenda.
With current Speaker Paul Ryan retiring and the House majority gone, the race for minority leader was McCarthy’s to lose.
After defeating Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the conservative House Freedom Caucus co-founder, McCarthy will be tested by Republicans on and off Capitol Hill who remain angry and divided after their midterm losses, and split over how best to move forward.
“We’ll be back,” McCarthy promised, claiming a unified front for the Republican leadership team. He won by 159-43 among House Republicans.
McCarthy, who has been majority leader under Ryan, acknowledged Republicans “took a beating” in the suburbs in last week’s national elections, especially as the ranks of GOP female lawmakers plummeted to just 13. The GOP side of the aisle will be made up of 90 percent white men in the new Congress — an imbalance he blamed on billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s election spending to help Democrats.
“We’re going to have to work harder,” McCarthy said. “Our message is going to have to be clearer.”
McCarthy has been here before, having helped pick up the party after Republicans last lost control of the House in 2006, leading them to the 2010 tea party wave that pushed them back into the majority.
House Democrats put off until after Thanksgiving their more prominent contest, but there have long been rumblings in the caucus that it was time to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who held the speaker’s gavel when the Democrats last had the majority.
A defiant Pelosi challenged maverick Democrats on Wednesday to produce a rival who could win enough votes to prevent her from becoming the House’s new speaker.
“Come on in, the water’s warm,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told a reporter about her message to rebellious colleagues.
A handful of Democrats, arguing it’s time for a fresh leadership team, say unhappy lawmakers are signing a letter pledging to vote against Pelosi when the full chamber elects the next speaker on Jan. 3. Some said they already have sufficient support to block her.
“We’ve got enough to ensure that she cannot become speaker,” said Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore.
But Pelosi is one of her party’s most productive fundraisers, energetic campaigners and respected legislative tacticians, giving her wide support that will make her difficult to topple.
“I will be speaker,” she said Wednesday.
No challenger to Pelosi has emerged, but disgruntled Democrats say there would be plenty of candidates should her bid be derailed. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, a leading Pelosi opponent, suggested two possibilities: Reps. Marcia Fudge of Ohio and Karen Bass of California, both members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Fudge told reporters she has signed the rebels’ letter and said colleagues have urged her to run for speaker.
On the other side of the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky won another term leading Republicans and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York won for the minority Democrats.
Senate Republicans also welcomed the first woman to their leadership team in years, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, who called her selection as vice chair of the conference “a great honor.”
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois was re-elected as minority whip, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.
In the House, Jordan and McCarthy shook hands after a testy two days of closed-door sessions, according to lawmakers in the room for Wednesday’s voting. Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, the Freedom Caucus chairman, called it a “gentlemanly” debate.
But the friendly talk papers over the infighting between the GOP’s conservative and moderate flanks as lawmakers dole out blame after the midterm election losses.
Many Republicans side with Jordan’s theory, which is that Republicans lost because they didn’t “do what we said” — including delivering Trump’s priority to build the border wall with Mexico.
GOP Rep. Peter King of New York rose to object, saying Republicans lost ground over the GOP tax cuts that reduced deductions for some filers. The harsh immigration rhetoric that turned off suburban voters didn’t help, he said.