Top U.S. House of Representatives Republican Kevin McCarthy could achieve his long-held dream of wielding the speaker's gavel this week - if he can survive a nightmare of infighting that threatens to hobble his party's new majority
House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy attends a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol where Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will deliver remarks, in Washington, U.S., December 21, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
Boehner's successor, Paul Ryan, a frequent target for conservatives, decided not to seek reelection in 2018 as then-President Donald Trump shifted the party focus from Ryan's fiscal priorities to immigration and culture-war issues. McCarthy has spent his adult life in politics, first as a congressional staffer and then state legislator before being elected to the House in 2006. Ascending to the speakership would represent the pinnacle of his career.
"I've gotten a lot of emails from people telling me that they don't want me to vote for Kevin McCarthy, and I do listen to what my constituents say," Representative-elect Anna Paulina Luna said in a recent podcast interview with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.If he succeeds, McCarthy will face an ongoing struggle to control the 435-seat chamber against the hard-line House Freedom Caucus's efforts to move the Republican conference ever further to the right.
McCarthy supporters hope this year's showdown won't end in a repeat of his 2015 bid for the speaker, when he was forced to withdraw in the face of conservative opposition. That year, the speakership went instead to a reluctant Ryan.
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