WASHINGTON — The House’s most hard-edged conservatives are eager to derail Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker, but they’re outnumbered and their chosen candidate lacks support. That leaves the Californian the heavy favorite when Republicans on Thursday pick their candidate to replace John Boehner.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus announced Wednesday that the group of several dozen rebellious conservatives would support longshot Republican Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida for speaker. But with McCarthy expected to win Thursday’s vote anyway, many were looking ahead to Oct. 29, when the full House formally elects the next speaker.
“Most of us have recognized that what happens (Thursday) is really not the fight. It’s about the floor,” said Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona, a Freedom Caucus member.
With Democrats sure to support one of their own, the GOP nominee will need 218 of the 247 House Republicans next month, a majority of the 435-member House. Conservatives say they’ll use that threshold to make demands in exchange for their support, perhaps promises to stop punishing Republicans who disobey leaders and to give rank-and-file lawmakers more power to pick committee chairs.
To wield leverage, the conservatives will need to remain unified — something that has at times eluded the fractious group and drawn derision from more pragmatic GOP colleagues. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., mocked their previous “Keystone Kops efforts” to deny Boehner the speakership, when the conservatives opposed the Ohio Republican’s election but splintered their votes among six candidates in January 2013 and nine candidates last January.
Still, pressure from the conservatives helped force last month’s abrupt announcement by Boehner that he will leave Congress Oct. 30.
Backed by Tea Party and other conservative organizations, they’ve long accused Boehner and his Senate counterpart, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, of timid efforts against President Barack Obama’s agenda.
Now, many want to make sure the speaker’s post doesn’t go to McCarthy, Boehner’s top lieutenant. They consider him part of a leadership team that’s been too quick to retreat on issues such as cutting Planned Parenthood’s federal funds and too willing to punish Republicans who don’t follow their lead.
“Folks are tired of going to work at a body that doesn’t matter,” said Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina. “And we’re tired of a leadership who begins a discussion by saying we don’t matter. And I think that may ultimately have been John’s undoing.”
In backing Webster, a former speaker of the Florida House who mounted an unsuccessful past effort to oust Boehner, the Freedom Caucus is getting behind a candidate with little realistic shot of prevailing. But if they stick together on the floor vote, they could deny McCarthy a majority, leading the House into uncertain territory and perhaps increasing their leverage to push demands for rules changes or other concessions.
