Wednesday, November 14, 2018
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy easily won an internal party election today to take over the shrunken House GOP caucus, handing the seven-term Californian a familiar role of building the party back to a majority as well as protecting President Donald Trump's agenda.
With current speaker Paul Ryan retiring and the House majority gone, the race for minority leader was McCarthy's to lose. But rarely has a leader of a party that suffered a major defeat – Democrats wiped out Republicans in GOP-held suburban districts from New York to McCarthy's own backyard – been so handily rewarded.
After pushing past a long-shot challenge from Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the co-founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, McCarthy will be tested by Republicans on and off Capitol Hill who remain angry and divided after their midterm losses and split over how best to move forward.
"We'll be back," McCarthy promised, claiming a unified front for the Republican leadership team. He won by 159-43 among House Republicans.
McCarthy, who has been majority leader under Ryan, acknowledged Republicans "took a beating" in the suburbs in last week's national elections, especially as the ranks of GOP female lawmakers plummeted from 23 to 13. The GOP side of the aisle will be made up of 90 percent white men in the new Congress – an imbalance he blamed on billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's election spending to help Democrats.
Bloomberg spent more than $110 million in the midterms. Two Republican women were defeated by candidates he supported, and both were replaced by Democratic women, said spokeswoman Rachel Nagler.
McCarthy has been here before, having helped pick up the party after Republicans last lost control of the House in 2006, leading them to the 2010 tea party wave that pushed them back into the majority.
Trump, who is close to McCarthy but also friendly with Jordan, largely stayed on the sidelines in the intraparty House contest. The outcome gives the president two allies positioned to help him.