Conservatives were ready to negotiate a deal with Kevin McCarthy to perhaps deliver the votes that would make him the next House Speaker when he suddenly dropped out of the race Thursday.
“I was surprised as anybody that he pulled out,” said Rep Raul Labrador, R-Idaho.
Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., another conservative, said he spoke to McCarthy just minutes before the announcement, but McCarthy didn’t breathe a word about dropping out. But instead of getting a conservative pitch from McCarthy, he announced he wasn’t the right person for the job.
“We are just as stunned as you are,” Mulvaney said after the announcement.
Labrador, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, a new conservative House group, said conservatives were working on a list of rules changes they submitted to the three candidates, including McCarthy, who were vying to succeed House Speaker John Boehner.
The list included an end to the practice of punishing lawmakers who vote against the leadership’s will on legislation.
The Freedom Caucus had endorsed Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., for speaker, based on his commitment to ending the top-down approach that conservatives believe dominates the GOP conference.
But the Freedom Caucus stipulated their commitment to Webster applied only to the internal GOP vote Thursday, and that they would be open to considering McCarthy or other candidates for Speaker Oct. 29 if the terms were right.
McCarthy, however, quit the race without even attempting to negotiate with conservatives, baffling Freedom Caucus members along with the rest of the GOP conference.
“We actually told all the candidate the same thing,” Labrador said. “That these are the changes that are actually necessary for us to come together.”
Labrador said he had no idea what changed McCarthy’s mind from the time he pitched his candidacy to Republicans at 8 a.m. until noon, when he made the announcement he would drop out. McCarthy said later he believed he could not win the 218 votes needed to become speaker, but other lawmakers believed he could have eventually secured the needed support.
“Leader McCarthy had over 200 votes,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said. “That makes him solidly the Republican leader.”
McCarthy’s true level of support is unknown. Some reports suggesting he had as few as 170 votes in his favor.
“He felt he couldn’t get to 218,” Issa said. “We will now look for the person who can bring in more of the conservative members without losing moderate members. I don’t believe anybody is out of the running at this moment.”
Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., said the conference was shocked by McCarthy’s announcement.
“He talked about how much of an honor it had been to serve, but he just said, I’m not your man, you need a new face,” Duncan said.
As soon as McCarthy dropped out, the House Freedom Caucus filed out of the meeting room, stunned along with their fellow Republicans about the sudden lack of a front-runner for speaker.
But some conservatives felt vindicated. Among those who celebrated the exit were conservatives who were never likely to vote for McCarthy.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan. a Webster backer, said he viewed McCarthy’s exit from the race as a loss for the GOP establishment, which he said has marginalized conservative priorities. Huelskamp was tossed from his post on the House Agriculture Committee for not voting in line with the GOP.
Huelskamp pointed to a recent poll showing 62 percent of Republicans felt betrayed by the GOP.
“They’ve lost two speakers in two weeks,” Huelskamp said, referencing both Boehner’s retirement announcement and McCarthy’s withdrawal from the race. “This is a loss for the establishment.”
Mulvaney said the next speaker could be a “caretaker,” who holds the position only until the end of the 114th Congress, or a centrist who garners the respect of both conservatives and more moderate Republicans. Or, Mulvaney said, the House could elect an institutionalist, like Webster, who worked to make changes to the Florida legislator when he led both the House of Representatives and Senate there.
Labrador said a consensus between conservatives and more moderate Republicans on choosing a new speaker is not impossible, despite McCarthy’s exit from the race.
“I think we have people of good will that want to bring this conference together,” Labrador said. “Not everyone is on the same page, but from every faction, there are people of good will.”
