The most conservative faction of House Republicans plans to unify behind a single candidate for House speaker, a move they say will increase their leverage in the election to succeed John Boehner when he resigns next month.
“Clearly, conservatives are in the driver’s seat,” Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., told the Washington Examiner. “We are working together. I presume we’ll be voting together.”
Huelskamp, along with a few dozen other GOP lawmakers, belong to the newly formed House Freedom Caucus, which espouses the conservative political philosophy of the Tea Party movement that got many of them elected to Congress.
Members of that group admit they do not wield enough influence for one of their own members to win the speaker’s gavel, which will require 218 GOP votes. But their bloc is large enough to potentially stop House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the frontrunner to succeed Boehner.
Huelskamp said no candidate has the votes to win the speaker’s job yet.
“There is nobody with 218 and what conservatives have demonstrated is that we are going to stick together, not just to change leaders, but to change procedures,” Huelskamp said.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a Freedom Caucus member, said the group isn’t necessarily looking for one of their own to win the speaker’s gavel. Instead, they want changes in the way House Republicans run the chamber so that the agenda is no longer dictated from the top leaders.
“You do that by having a bottom-up approach where decisions actually percolate up through members across the ideological spectrum to gain consensus,” Meadows said. “Then, pressure builds to bring those bills to the floor. That’s the way most people on Main Street believe it should work.”
A half-dozen Republican lawmakers have announced plans to run for leadership and will meet with conservatives in a series of meetings that will start early next month.
The candidates will address the Republican Study Committee, the largest House conservative group, on Oct. 7. The House Freedom Caucus will also grill the candidates next week and decide, likely as a powerful voting group, how to vote.
“There is a lot of fluidity in the speaker’s race and the other leadership races,” said Rep. John Fleming, R-La., another Freedom Caucus member. “We’ve agreed to be noncommittal until we talk to the various candidates.”
In addition to McCarthy, Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., said he will also run for speaker. Webster challenged Boehner for the job at the opening of the 114th Session in January, and won a dozen votes.
The majority leader’s race officially includes House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., who both sent memos announcing their bids to the GOP conference.
Some lawmakers are trying to recruit Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who chairs the special committee investigating the terrorist attacks in Benghazi. Gowdy, however, has said he will not run for the post and will instead remain atop the Benghazi panel.
But calls for Gowdy or some other alternative could continue to grow. Conservatives say constituents are calling and emailing and asking for new leadership, which could make it difficult for them to back McCarthy, or even Scalise, who is considered the most conservative of the current GOP leadership team.
“What I’m hearing from the people I represent is a move up of McCarthy and Scalise into the number one and number two positions is not what they are looking for,” Meadows said. “I think that speaks volumes. Not to pass judgement on Scalise’s bonafides, but the general feeling is if the same people move up, then that is not changing the way D.C. does business.”
