Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican and House majority leader, has pulled himself out of the running to replace House speaker John Boehner. National Review Online‘s Eliana Johnson broke the news:
Breaking: GOP congressman tells me @GOPLeader is postponing speaker election…and took himself out of the race.
— Eliana Johnson (@elianayjohnson) October 8, 2015
McCarthy was seen as the next in line for the job after Boehner announced two weeks ago he was resigning the speakership. But problems greeted McCarthy’s campaign almost from the beginning. A small but signficant group of House Republicans began coalescing around a more conservative alternative, Florida’s Daniel Webster.
And in an interview last week with Sean Hannity, McCarthy touted the House Benghazi committee’s work as having hurt Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Democrats seized on the gaffe.
Update: Here’s a statement from McCarthy:
As recently as Wednesday evening, McCarthy allies were emailing reporters evidence of the leader’s support within the conference, which suggests the decision to drop was not known to his closest friends—or not made until shortly before he announced it.
