A Tea Party group with a sizable email list is kicking off an unlikely campaign today to draft Rep. Trey Gowdy as speaker of the House.
The Tea Party Leadership Fund is starting its effort with a website and a Facebook page as well as an email soliciting petition signatures and donations on the same day that the South Carolina Republican is leading hearings on the attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
“Today the Tea Party Leadership Fund is launching a nationwide campaign to draft Congressman Trey Gowdy to serve as the next Speaker of the House AND BRING TRUE CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP TO CONGRESS,” reads the email.
Rusty Humphries, a talk radio host and spokesman for the Tea Party Leadership Fund, said his group did not reach out to Gowdy’s office before announcing its efforts.
Humphries said the group’s push “isn’t some heavy-handed, up-on-high movement where we’re trying to remove the speaker of the House.”
It is extremely unlikely that Gowdy will be Speaker of the House, as he’s made zero indication that he wants the job and as Speaker John Boehner looks poised to be re-elected easily.
But Boehner has rankled some grassroots conservative activists, while Gowdy remains popular with them.
The Tea Party Leadership Fund isn’t the only group with sky-high hopes for Gowdy’s political career. Sen. Tim Scott told National Review in March that he hopes his fellow South Carolinian will be a Supreme Court justice someday.
Gowdy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
