To win over the hardliners blocking his path to the speakership, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is testing just how far he can cave—before he hands them all the power he has.
After he failed to be elected Speaker on an unprecedented sixth vote Wednesday, McCarthy and his allies huddled late into the night with many of the 20-some GOP lawmakers who are opposing his bid.
The California Republican has been trying to woo these members with concessions for weeks. His offers obviously weren’t enough, but now, the outlines of a potential deal are beginning to take shape.
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According to reporting from Politico, McCarthy and his critics are discussing a measure that would allow just one lawmaker to force a vote to remove him as Speaker, as well as installing members of the breakaway faction on the influential House Rules Committee. They are also haggling over legislation to create congressional term limits and overhaul the federal spending process.
Late on Wednesday, McCarthy also secured a modest, but potentially momentum-shifting concession outside of Congress. His super PAC agreed to disengage from “safe open seat” GOP primaries, where it had previously intervened to block more hardline candidates. Although that has rarely occurred, McCarthy’s primary involvement has been a sticking point for several conservatives.
The question is whether these offers will get McCarthy to the magic 218-vote threshold he needs to win the gavel. Given Republicans’ 222-seat majority, it only takes five Republicans to defeat McCarthy in a floor vote. So far, as many as 21 GOP representatives have voted against the GOP leader.
Initial signs are not good. While Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), an influential presence in the hardliner bloc, is said to be closer to accepting a deal, other key figures appeared to throw cold water on the compromise.
“Make no mistake: I’ll continue do what’s right, not what’s easy,” tweeted Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), chairman of the Freedom Caucus, on Thursday morning. “And I’ll stay on target until the job is done and the status quo is defeated.”
A source involved in the negotiations told The Daily Beast that McCarthy’s latest offer could move some votes, but more than 10 of the holdouts appeared committed to never voting for McCarthy. The source added that the offer also might end up moving hardly anyone.
The source said part of the problem for knowing definitively how many votes would move is that McCarthy’s offer was incomplete in the minds of his detractors. A lot would depend upon the additional assurances and clarifications members could get before they voted.
Some lawmakers, clearly, will only be satisfied when McCarthy is defeated. That includes Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO). If three more are in that camp, short of making a deal with Democrats, there’s nothing McCarthy can do—even if the remaining 97 percent of the House GOP is on board with him.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), who nominated McCarthy ahead of a vote on Wednesday, acknowledged the brutal math in a CNN interview on Thursday morning.
“The tough part is, I think, the number that will never vote for Kevin McCarthy is more than four,” he said.
After six failed votes over two days, the House is scheduled to head to its seventh ballot on Thursday at noon. It could be a make or break moment for McCarthy.
If he can show at least some progress toward getting the holdouts, he would likely at least buy himself more time to continue negotiating, and likely move to hold another vote to keep the House adjourned. If no one moves toward McCarthy after this latest offer, his already narrow pathway might taper into a brick wall.
Ursula Perano and Matt Fuller contributed to this report.
