The Republicans voting against McCarthy

Just In | The Hill 

As House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) bid for Speaker hangs in the balance, several far-right members of his own party have indicated that they plan to oppose him in Tuesday’s vote. 

The five “Never Kevin” Republicans — Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.) and Bob Good (Va.) — have pledged to vote as a bloc on Tuesday, and they all appear likely to remain firmly anti-McCarthy.

The group has the potential to derail McCarthy’s Speaker vote, as the House minority leader can afford to lose only four GOP votes after Republicans secured a slim 222-213 majority in November’s midterm elections.

If McCarthy fails to secure a majority on Tuesday, the Speaker election will go to a second ballot for the first time in a century.

Andy Biggs

Despite soundly losing the GOP nomination for Speaker in mid-November, Biggs announced earlier this month that he would challenge McCarthy for the position before the full House.

“I’m running for Speaker to break the establishment,” Biggs said in a tweet on Dec. 6. “Kevin McCarthy was created by, elevated by, and maintained by the establishment.”

Biggs has remained steadfast in his opposition to the current House minority leader, saying in an interview with Fox News on Thursday that he does not see any scenario in which he would vote for McCarthy.

While he has put himself forward as an alternative, Biggs does not appear tied to his own Speakership and has suggested that several other Republican members could be “very capable” of being Speaker.

“We feel support. There are those who will not support me, but there are others who are quietly indicating that they’ll either support me or someone else,” Biggs said in a Fox Business interview on Wednesday.

Matt Gaetz

Gaetz has also remained a staunch opponent to a McCarthy Speakership, recently suggesting that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) should take up the mantle instead.

“I’m not voting for Kevin McCarthy for Speaker because he’s just a shill of The Establishment,” Gaetz told the Daily Caller in a recent interview.

“We need someone like Jim Jordan as the speaker of the House, who can cast a vision and who has the trust and confidence of the people across the spectrum in the House,” he added.

The Florida congressman has repeatedly pushed for Jordan to jump in the race as Tuesday’s vote grows closer.

“All I want for Christmas is @Jim_Jordan to realize he should be Speaker of the House!” Gaetz said in a Christmas Eve tweet, adding on Christmas Day, “Merry Christmas to all! Make sure to join me in encouraging @Jim_Jordan to seek the Speakership.”

However, Jordan himself has shown no indication that he plans to run for Speaker, instead choosing to endorse McCarthy and expressing concern that a McCarthy loss could push moderate Republicans to work with Democrats to find an alternative candidate.

“So let’s hope that there’s never any kind of bargain where you bring the Democrats into play because they’ll be … trying to stop investigations that are our constitutional duty to conduct,” Jordan told Breitbart earlier this month.

Ralph Norman

Unlike his fellow members of the “Never Kevin” squad, Norman appears to have left more room to shift his position on McCarthy. However, he has yet to indicate any change of heart on the upcoming vote.

Norman initially told Politico in late November that he was a “hard” no vote on McCarthy’s Speakership over his approach to the national debt.

“Economic security is national security. I was not happy with the answer Kevin gave me about balancing the budget,” he said at the time. “I don’t care who the speaker is. It could be Mickey Mouse, but if we have our way, we’re gonna have some firm economic mandates.”

However, the South Carolina Republican appeared to soften his stance slightly, with Politico reporting that he was a “no right now” in mid-December. 

“We’ll negotiate,” Norman added, when Axios first reported the group of five’s decision to vote as a bloc. “By 11:59 [a.m.] on Jan. 3, we’ll know.”

While Norman said McCarthy could sway his vote by agreeing to a plan to balance the budget within seven years, he added that it might not persuade the others, who he promised would “all operate as five.” 

“We come as five, so we’re going to agree on all [of the concessions we need],” Norman said, according to Axios.

Matt Rosendale

Rosendale has pointed to McCarthy’s pushback on several proposed rules changes for his participation in the “Never Kevin” group. 

“[McCarthy] made it clear that he is unwilling to meaningfully change the rules and challenge the status quo in Washington,” Rosendale said in an op-ed for the Billings Gazette in early December. 

“Current Republican leadership falls in with the majority of politicians who campaign on change but support the current system that provides them with undeserved power and privilege,” he continued.

Rosendale suggested that he was still on board with the group of five and their opposition to McCarthy in a tweet on Friday.

“We must change the rules and leadership if we are going to restore functionality to congress. There are many more than 5 who recognize this,” Rosendale wrote in response to a post from Gaetz about the Speakership election.

However, the Montana Republican previously said he would vote for McCarthy under “extreme circumstances.”

Bob Good

Good, the final member of the five, insisted in an interview with Politico Playbook last week that McCarthy still does not have his vote.

“He doesn’t have anything that I want,” Good told Playbook.

Good also suggested that between 10 and 20 Republicans would vote against McCarthy on Tuesday. While the Virginia congressman said the anti-McCarthy group plans to vote for Biggs in the first vote, it intends to coalesce around another candidate on the second.

“I believe you have enough courageous conservatives who are recognizing based on past history that there’s nothing to indicate that [McCarthy] will bring the fight to the battle,” Good said in an interview with a local Virginia radio station.

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