McCarthy drops out of speaker race, causing turmoil

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Confronting insurmountable obstacles, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suddenly withdrew from the contest for speaker of the U.S. House on Thursday, shocking colleagues just before they were to vote and producing ever-deeper chaos for a divided Congress.

“We need a new face,” McCarthy declared after a closed-door meeting where House Republicans were prepared to nominate him as speaker but instead listened in disbelief as he took himself out of the running. “If we are going to be strong, we’ve got to be 100 percent united.”

Allies said that even though he certainly would have emerged the winner from Thursday’s secret-ballot election of Republicans, McCarthy had concluded he did not have a path to getting the needed 218-vote majority in the full House later this month. A small but determined bloc of conservatives had announced they were opposing him, and they commanded enough votes to block him on the floor.

These same lawmakers, members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, pushed outgoing Speaker John Boehner to announce his resignation two weeks ago by threatening a floor vote on his speakership. Some of them cheered the announcement by Boehner’s No. 2.

“The establishment has lost two speakers in two weeks. K Street must be shaking in their boots. Mitch McConnell must be shaking in his boots, too,” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, naming the Republican majority leader of the Senate.

One immediate impact, however, might be to prolong Boehner’s tenure. The Ohio Republican, who had intended to leave Oct. 30, said he would stay on “until the House votes to elect a new speaker.”

The man most widely seen as a potential speaker in McCarthy’s place immediately ruled it out.

“While I am grateful for the encouragement I’ve received, I will not be a candidate,” said Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the former vice presidential nominee who now chairs the Ways and Means Committee. But Ryan was under intense pressure to reconsider, including from Boehner and McCarthy.