The fight involving Kevin McCarthy and the blackmailers in the House is not new. it happened to me twice

The effort by a handful of disgruntled Republicans to blackmail the rest of the US House Republican Conference is nothing new.

I faced similar efforts twice: in 1995 and 1997. Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan faced similar eruptions.

The record for this type of fight was set in the longest speaker election in House history, when Nathaniel Banks was elected in 1855 after 133 ballots. That agonizing fight took two months of voting. Imagine the C-SPAN audience that would have generated.

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So now we have a new fight between Speaker-Designate Kevin McCarthy and the handful of members who are trying to take advantage of the narrow Republican majority by blackmailing their colleagues to get their way. It leaves me with a few questions.

I have been reading the news and talking to the people in the House and quite frankly I cannot understand what the blackmailers want.

I use the word blackmailers deliberately. They are trying to exploit the vulnerability of their fellow House Republicans to get what they want, even if it is not what the rest of the conference wants. They’re not just blackmailing McCarthy, they’re blackmailing his fellow House members who voted for him.

I use the word blackmailers deliberately. They are trying to exploit the vulnerability of their fellow House Republicans to get what they want, even if it is not what the rest of the conference wants.

Remember that when members were asked on November 15 to choose between McCarthy and Rep. Andy Biggs, the House Republican Conference voted 188 to 31 for McCarthy. That’s an 85 percent majority. In most elections, that is considered decisive. But not the blackmailers.

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In effect, this small group of self-righteous opportunists is signaling to their colleagues that any stubborn group can retain the entire majority on any issue they want. This is a formula for disaster and would make it impossible to govern.

If McCarthy and the House Republican leaders caved to the first group of blackmailers, what would they do when the second, third, and fourth groups showed up? If hardline conservatives can blackmail the conference, then so can moderates or any regional group (Californians, New Yorkers, Floridians, Ohioans, and Texans). Each could form regional blackmail groups.

I also wonder what Biggs and the other blackmailers think they’ve done to earn the speakership. They challenge McCarthy’s leadership, but he has campaigned more to create a Republican majority than anyone since Boehner in 2010. Given that I spent 16 years working to grow the first Republican House majority in 40 years, I have a serious bias toward the leaders who get that position. about the members who just want it.

Compare McCarthy’s efforts to win the speaker’s spot against his November conference competitor, Biggs of Arizona.

Set aside the $500 million McCarthy and his allies raised during the 2022 campaign cycle. Some of the blackmailers seem to think the effort doesn’t count (it does) because he had the power of the conference (and they didn’t).

Remember McCarthy’s leadership began with his incredible recruitment and support in the 2020 cycle. He stunned pundits who expected House Republicans to lose 25 seats. Thanks to his leadership, the Republicans won 14 seats. That was a 39-seat variance of the predictions.

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McCarthy has been the most aggressive recruiter in history. He found and attracted a record number of new members, and significantly expanded the Republican Party.

In the 2020 cycle, the House Republican Party had 228 female candidates and 192 minority candidates. By the 2022 cycle, this had increased to 298 female candidates, 248 minority candidates, and 252 veterans. McCarthy’s commitment to a larger, more diverse and more open Republican Party is becoming a reality.

McCarthy’s travel schedule reflected the depth of his personal commitment to electing a Republican majority in the House. In cycle 2022, she was in 47 states and spent 311 days on the road. This is how he looks like winning the speaker position. Without McCarthy’s effort, we might not have seen Jen Kiggins, Mike Lawler, Juan Ciscomani, Tom Kean, and many others join the new Congress.

These are just some examples. McCarthy’s leadership helped dozens of other campaigns. Thanks to McCarthy’s consistent hard work, House Republicans won seats in 2020 (the Senate GOP lost three seats) and nine seats in 2022 (the Senate GOP lost one seat).

And while McCarthy has been leading these historic campaign and recruiting efforts, he has also been leading on Capitol Hill.

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He rallied the Republicans against the Democrats’ impeachment efforts and the January 6 trials (putting Jim Jordan on the intelligence committee to fight them directly). Service members are no longer under Joe Biden’s draconian vaccine mandates.

Thanks to McCarthy, Reps. Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and Ilhan Omar will be off the intelligence committee after repeatedly lying to the American people.

He’s made it clear he’s going to stop spending spree, and he’s willing to use the debt ceiling to do so. And he personally argued against Biden’s spending schedule for eight and a half hours on the House floor.

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Perhaps most importantly, and the biggest indication that he deserves the speakership, McCarthy has assembled the largest Republican coalition of any speaker in modern history. Except for the blackmailers, the Republicans are with him.

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In the spirit of fairness and debate, we asked Rep. Bigg’s office, “Could you tell us what all of the Rep. Biggs did this cycle to help get other Republicans elected (campaigns, fundraisers, etc.)?”

Here is his response to us in full:

“While serving as chair of the House Freedom Caucus (HFC), the largest group of conservatives in Congress, I fundraised and campaigned for my colleagues across the country.

“Even as a former HFC president, I worked to raise funds and campaign for my HFC colleagues.

“As a leader in Arizona, even though I didn’t even hold the highest office in Arizona or act as the leader of the Arizona Republican Party, I took an important role in working to get all Arizona Republicans elected.

“It is almost unusual to say that a person who has been in the Republican leadership for twelve years and has had access to the national party’s fundraising apparatus should be rewarded with the position of House Speaker for raising more dollars than a grassroots member. Of course, we would expect Mr. McCarthy to use his access to special interest fundraising lists to raise more dollars than anyone else.

“I’ve also posted a platform, America First Contract, which offers charts of an affirmative Republican plan including legislation, how to use leverage against the Biden Administration, and a partial list of investigations and oversight. That plan was published many months before the election. .

“Americans have stated their desire to change the path we are on. It may be uncomfortable and seem difficult, but without change, we will persist on a sub-optimal path. We need to change the status quo, and that means changing our leader.”

When we asked again about specific campaigns Biggs helped with, we were told to look up the Federal Election Committee reports ourselves. Of course, those reports don’t show where Biggs campaigned, who else he helped get elected or how many candidates he recruited.

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Whether blackmail and opportunism trump hard work and leadership to win the speaking position is up to you.

Let your representatives in the GOP House know your feelings.

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