Kevin McCarthy lacks the support of the Republican right wing. He is the first politician not to be elected President of the US House of Representatives on the first ballot.
(Photo: AP)
Washington US Republican Kevin McCarthy is getting support from ex-President Donald Trump in his bid for the presidency of the House of Representatives. “Now is the time for all of our great Republicans to vote for Kevin, close the deal, take the win,” Trump wrote in a post on his media platform Truth Social on Wednesday. “Don’t turn a great triumph into a huge and embarrassing defeat. It’s time to celebrate, you deserve it. Kevin McCarthy will do a good job and maybe even a great job – just wait and see!”
McCarthy failed in three rounds of voting on Tuesday due to opposition from several ultra-conservative members of his own party. Nothing like it had happened in 100 years. The election of the chairman was therefore postponed to this Wednesday. The first session of the newly elected Congress was a miserable start for the Republicans, who had just won a majority in the chamber in the midterm elections in November.
The bitter internal struggle of the Republicans for leadership in the House of Representatives overshadowed the start of a new legislative period. It is the first time in a hundred years that the election has required more than one attempt and that a parliamentary group has not elected its candidate to office in the first round.
With a slim majority, McCarthy needs almost every vote in the chamber. If all MPs are present and voting, he needs 218 votes. In the first two attempts, only 203 fell on him – in the third even only 202. He got fewer votes than his Democratic competitor Hakeem Jeffries. The leader of the Democratic faction was nominated for the post by his party. However, it is considered impossible that he will make the race. He would need Republican votes for that, since the Democrats are the smaller faction in the chamber. Republican lawmakers spoke of “chaos” after the ballot.
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Trump remains influential, particularly on the right wing of the Republicans. His backing could therefore definitely help McCarthy.
McCarthy is combative
The 57-year-old is facing accusations, especially from the ultra-conservative wing of the party, that he was not aggressive enough in his time as a minority leader in the House of Representatives to have defied the Democrats under the previous Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Some Republicans also consider him too fickle.
McCarthy had been pugnacious just before the session, saying he would have no problem setting a record for the most ballots in a House presidential vote. Until the presidency is clarified, nothing works: the Congress Chamber cannot start its work, not even the new MPs can be sworn in.
It is also possible that a new candidate will be put forward that a majority of Republicans may agree on. One name that keeps coming up is Steve Scalise. The Republican belongs to the leadership of the party. He had lined up behind McCarthy on Tuesday. Elise Stefanik is also named. She was elected to the House of Representatives in 2014 as the youngest woman at the time and was considered moderate. She is now one of Trump’s iron supporters.
The right-wing Trump supporters in the Republican faction, however, prefer Congressman Jim Jordan. He was already up for election on Tuesday and coaxed votes from McCarthy. After the debacle in the vote, Jordan emphasized that he himself did not want to become chairman of the House of Representatives. The right wing should not be a viable compromise candidate for many in the party either.
More: Commentary: Kamikaze in US Congress – Republicans blow up chance of restart