Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona) rekindled his campaign to unseat House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for the position of Speaker of the House on Tuesday. McCarthy’s opponents want to prevent McCarthy from securing the gavel on the House floor, but they do not have a viable alternative. Biggs’ campaign is an example of this.
“I’m running for Speaker to break the establishment,” Biggs, a former chairman of the confrontational conservative House Freedom Caucus, said in a tweet on Tuesday alongside an opinion piece in the Daily Caller railing against McCarthy’s leadership. Biggs is running against McCarthy for the position of Speaker of the House. “The establishment is responsible for Kevin McCarthy’s creation, elevation, and continued maintenance.”
The office of Biggs informed The Hill on Tuesday that despite the tweet and the opinion piece, he is still open to and interested in a different candidate for the position of Speaker of the House. In the meanwhile, however, Biggs is taking steps to maintain his position in the race. Just last week, he announced that he intends to cast a vote for himself on the House floor.
Biggs, who mounted a last-minute and long-shot challenge to McCarthy for a House GOP Speaker nomination vote last month, has stated that he believes a more “consensus” alternative to McCarthy will emerge before the vote for the Speakership. McCarthy is currently the incumbent speaker of the House of Representatives.
According to Representative Don Bacon (R-Nebraska), a more moderate member of the Republican Party, tensions regarding opposition to McCarthy increased during a conference meeting on Tuesday. During the meeting, McCarthy’s allies spoke up to tell critics to get behind the GOP leader and not hurt the whole team.
Bacon stated on Tuesday that he has had “a little bit” of conversation with House Democrats about the possibility of working together to find an alternative to McCarthy as Speaker if he fails multiple ballots. Bacon was referring to the possibility of working together to find an alternative to McCarthy.
“If we have numerous, repeated votes, and they’re not prepared to support what the vast majority of the conference wants to do, then it’s clear that they don’t care about the will of the conference. “We’re not going to let them hold us hostage,” Bacon remarked as he was leaving the meeting.
A week after the midterm elections, a vote using secret ballots resulted in McCarthy beating over Biggs for the candidacy of House Republican Speaker. The vote was 188 to 31. However, in order for McCarthy to win the gavel on January 3, those voting for a Speakership candidate will need to give him a majority of their vote. Given that Republicans are entering the new Congress with only a narrow majority of 222 to 212 and there is one vacancy, the opposition to McCarthy from five members could put him below the threshold to be Speaker of the House.
And in addition to Biggs, four other Republicans in the House — Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Matt Rosendale of Montana — have either come out and said they will vote for an alternative candidate on the floor or strongly hinted that they will do so.
Those who are in favor of McCarthy argue that because there is no other viable candidate, McCarthy is still the front-runner for the position of Speaker of the House. Rep. Mike Johnson (La.), who serves as the vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, was suggested by Biggs as a potential replacement. McCarthy, on the other hand, has Johnson’s support.
This past weekend, former President Trump issued a rebuke in response to a report that some Democrats had discussed the possibility of outgoing moderate Representative Fred Upton (R-Michigan) becoming the next Speaker of the House. Following the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Upton cast a vote to impeach President Trump.
Others who are withholding their support for McCarthy, such as Representative Chip Roy (Texas), are aware that a conservative Republican cannot win the position of Speaker of the House. Although Roy has argued in favor of altering the rules of the House in order to give rank-and-file members more authority, he has not disclosed how he intends to vote on January 3.
“No one that I’m talking to, and certainly myself, believes that we’re going to get Speaker, you know, Chip Roy, or frankly, Speaker Andy Biggs,” Roy said on Monday’s episode of “The Ben Domenech podcast.” Roy was referring to the possibility of either Chip Roy or Andy Biggs becoming the next Speaker of the House.
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