GOP in tumult after McCarthy’s withdrawal from speaker race

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jolted by political lightning for the second time in two weeks, House Republicans met Friday to discuss their next move after Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s astonishing decision to abandon his campaign to become the chamber’s next speaker.

Several potential candidates for the top post quickly surfaced, chief among them Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the GOP’s 2012 vice presidential pick. With Republicans recently acting more like feuding relatives than a unified party, Boehner and McCarthy were pressing Ryan to seek the job.

Ryan, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, said he was uninterested but did not reject the idea outright when he entered Friday’s conference.

“I have nothing new to say,” Ryan said.

The House No. 3, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, said he’d like to see Ryan the next speaker.

On Thursday, Republicans munching barbecue at a closed-door meeting where they seemed ready to coronate McCarthy as their candidate for speaker were aghast when the Californian rose and told them he wouldn’t seek the job.

Facing opposition from a band of hard-right conservatives, some McCarthy supporters said he concluded he would have fallen short of the 218 votes needed when the full House formally elects the speaker. Others said he could have won but GOP lawmakers backing him would have infuriated conservative constituents back home, jeopardizing their own careers.

“It was only going to get worse,” McCarthy said in an interview published Thursday night by The Wall Street Journal. He added, “This was for the good of the team.”

McCarthy’s announcement leaves the race to succeed the departing Speaker John Boehner wide open. The Ohio Republican delivered his own shocker on Sept. 25 when he said he would retire from Congress Oct. 30.