Kevin McCarthy Sold Himself To Trump And Now He May Not Have The Votes To Be Speaker

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Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:55 pm

At least 3-4 House Republicans have signaled that they will not vote for Kevin McCarthy to be Speaker of the House, and that means that he might not have enough votes to be Speaker.

Here are the no votes and leaners so far:

So far it’s Reps:
Biggs
Gaetz
Good

And Rosendale has signaled he’s a likely no https://t.co/cj79tDp3N3

— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) November 18, 2022

With at least four votes against him, McCarthy needs Republicans to finish with more than 221 seats in the House. If Republicans finish at 221 or less, McCarthy can’t get elected Speaker.

McCarthy may currently have one vote to spare:

Gaetz, Biggs…

McCarthy can only afford 1 more defection (at most). https://t.co/kGLGMbliDR

— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) November 18, 2022

It is looking like Kevin McCarthy sold himself to Donald Trump and ended up not having enough votes to be elected Speaker. Marjorie Taylor Greene has endorsed McCarthy. Donald Trump has endorsed McCarthy, and it doesn’t seem to matter.

The Republican majority is too small to give McCarthy a big enough cushion to survive any opposition to his candidacy.

Things could get really interesting when the vote gets to the House floor if Democrats can find a handful of moderate Republicans and build a coalition to get their own Speaker elected.

It would not be someone like Speaker Pelosi who has announced that she won’t serve in leadership in the next Congress, but it could be a moderate Democrat or Republican that would cut the far-right completely out of the process.

There have already been rumblings that if no consensus can be agreed upon, the search for a speaker could last for weeks or even months, and it may never be Kevin McCarthy.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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