This post was updated at 4:25 p.m.
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A local political science professor says Congressman Kevin McCarthy’s rejection of the House Speaker seat is coming at a really bad time for the Republican party. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Daniel Webster (R-FL).
Rep. John Fleming, R-4th District, a founding member of the caucus, said his office has received calls from constituents urging him not to vote for McCarthy.
With McCarthy gone, a few Republicans predicted many new candidates will soon surface.
“The Freedom Caucus has moved away from this primary focus in recent weeks, and for this reason I have stepped back from the caucus”, Ribble said.
“We’re servants. We should put this conference first”, McCarthy said Thursday.
“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” Franks noted McCarthy said he took himself out of the running “for the good of the country”.
“We all worked to get the majority”. “Where do they go from here is anybody’s guess”.
Attempting to calm the waters, 19 Republicans including several committee chairs wrote GOP lawmakers that they shouldn’t pick a speaker until agreeing on “a shared set of goals and governing vision that benefits the nation and our constituents”.
The changes were made on Thursday, the same day McCarthy unexpectedly dropped out of the race for Speaker of the House.
Now, just 10 months later, Scalise may instead take on an even bigger role in the party and become majority leader, helping shape the direction and policies of House Republicans.
The election was postponed, as may be the scheduled October. 29 vote for speaker by the full House, Democrats as well as Republicans. He said the next speaker will have to tame a small but vocal group of lawmakers with a strong ideological bent or find a way to “buck up” more mainstream House Republicans.
He and other Mississippi House members said they were caught off guard by McCarthy’s decision. Peter Roskam of Illinois, Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Ryan, however, has already issued a statement that he won’t run.
He said the problem is that establishment Republicans, like Boehner and McCarthy, have refused to reach across the aisle to Democrats to get legislation passed. Republicans are divided and “anyone with eyes can see it”, Dent said.
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House leadership announced a postponement of the party election for speaker – the person immediately behind the vice president in the line of presidential succession – until a later date.
