Who is going to be the House Speaker? Kevin McCarthy is the House minority leader, but that doesn't mean that he has the 218 votes necessary to take the gavel.
“McCarthy launched his effort to be House speaker earlier this month in a closed-ballot vote by his conference. At the time, he only earned 188 of the 218 votes necessary to become speaker, with 31 votes going to his surprise challenger: House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs (R-AZ). Biggs is one of the dozens of Republicans who have refused to support McCarthy’s speakership bid. That opposition, combined with a less-than-stellar turnout by Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections, is jeopardizing McCarthy’s chances of securing the gavel.”
While it is just like the Republican Party to make things ridiculous like this, I’m not sure we’re going to get there. It may be more than enough to simply scare Kevin McCarthy into not being a squish. For those who think this is pollyannaish, understand that McCarthy’s majority will be so slim that he can’t afford any hiccups. He will need all of the cooperation he can get.
McCarthy needs to make peace with the Freedom Caucus.
I'm surprised he hasn't turned to the Dems for the votes he needs.
ReplyDeleteIn recent times, the speaker has been elected and supported strictly by the majority party but that didn't use to be the case and doesn't have to be the case.
Unfortunately, I could see a couple of establishment Republicans siding with Dems to install either a Demo speaker or a very squishy Republicans...