Farewell to Kevin McCarthy: The highs and lows of ex-speaker’s House leadership

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is set to leave Congress on Dec. 31, bringing to an end a nearly 17-year career in Congress, which saw him hold the speaker’s gavel for nine months.

His time as speaker was full of highs and lows. The nine months saw the Congress avoid a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt and a government shutdown, but it also saw the floor be blocked for a week due to a revolt of the far Right and McCarthy being ousted as speaker.

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LOW

First speaker fight:

It started out shaky. When McCarthy first took his speakership to the floor for a vote in January, it was unclear if he would ever get the necessary votes to become speaker, especially with Republicans having such a slim margin.

For the first time in a century, a nominee for speaker would fail to get the votes on the first ballot, starting his speakership on a low note. It would eventually take him four days and 15 ballots to become speaker, the fifth most ballots in U.S. history.

So, McCarthy’s speakership started on a low note.

HIGH

Limit, Save, Grow Act

All year, Republicans, and McCarthy, knew that they were going to have to negotiate with the White House on some sort of debt ceiling deal, but for months, the White House would not talk with McCarthy about it. Instead, many believed they would have to cave and swallow a clean debt ceiling increase.

Republicans then passed their version of a debt ceiling deal that had no chance of passing the Senate but put the administration on notice. The ball was in its court now.

So, it started negotiating with McCarthy and House Republicans until, eventually, they got a deal. And it was a win for McCarthy. There were spending caps and cuts in the bill, and it had permitting reform as well as some work requirements for government benefits.

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The appropriations process

Hard-line conservatives were very upset at the debt ceiling deal and thought it didn’t do enough to cut spending, so in protest, they blocked the floor for a week until they came to an agreement with McCarthy to write appropriations bills at a lower number.

But even though McCarthy had the appropriators write the bills at a lower number, that still wasn’t good enough for the hard-line members of his conference, leading to them tanking the rule on some bills and voting down the bill itself on others.

HIGH

The continuing resolution

While it might have cost him his job, McCarthy “did what’s best for the country,” as he put it, and passed a clean continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown after his attempt to pass a Republican-only one failed on the floor.

The move was opposed by some of his members, with a handful angry enough to lead a revolt to oust him. But at the end of the day, McCarthy did avoid a fall government shutdown, something many people did not think he would be able to do.

LOW 

Motion to vacate

The lowest of all lows for McCarthy in his nine months as speaker was being ousted from the position. After the continuing resolution passed, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) led the charge in filing the motion to vacate and whipping the votes to ensure that enough Republicans voted to oust the speaker.

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In the end, eight Republicans, led by Gaetz, would vote with all the Democrats and oust McCarthy from his post on Oct. 3, the first time that had happened in American history.

McCarthy would then announce that he would not be running for speaker again, opening the floodgates to three weeks without a speaker of the House, which eventually led to the election of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).