Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, plans to challenge Kevin McCarthy for speaker of the House. The Republicans are scheduled to hold leadership elections Oct. 8.
Chaffetz will enter a race that features McCarthy, the House majority leader and heir apparent, and Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla.
The current chair of the House Oversight Committee was originally elected to Congress in 2008 after defeating a Republican incumbent as a conservative primary challenger, and has been associated with the Tea Party in the past.
His bid, as well as Webster’s, is likely to be seen as an anti-establishment challenge to McCarthy, though Chaffetz has a larger national profile, and is poised to be a larger threat.
