Five takeaways: How McCarthy won the Speakership

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is the new Speaker of the House after an extraordinary week of 15 votes on the House floor that laid the divisions of his conference out for all to see.  

It ended with the biggest political victory of McCarthy’s career, but the tumult raises questions over how he’ll lead fractious Republicans — and what it will mean for the country when it comes time to fund the government and raise the nation’s debt ceiling.  

Here are five takeaways on the craziest Speaker’s election anyone alive has ever seen. 

McCarthy picks them off 

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) reacts to being sworn in as Speaker as for the 118th session of Congress on Saturday, January 7, 2023. (Greg Nash)

McCarthy took shot after shot during the week from pundits and critics in both parties who questioned his ability to climb the biggest hill in the House.  

Many wondered whether he’d ever get the majority he needed as he lost vote after vote, with little sign his critics were movable.  

Some of McCarthy’s tactics didn’t work, and some of the criticism came for a reason.  

Pressuring his opponents during a closed-door conference meeting on Jan. 2 failed to move anyone and led to a fiery start to the votes, with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) reportedly yelling, “Bullshit!” when McCarthy told his critics he’d earned the Speakership.  

Nineteen Republicans voted against McCarthy on the first ballot, and the count had grown to 20 by the third when Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) joined the defectors.  

Yet McCarthy showed real resilience during the fight, too, and his statements Tuesday that he wasn’t afraid to battle in ballot after ballot were borne out.

McCarthy pledged that he was ready for the fight, and he and his allies were working furiously behind the scenes by midweek to reach a deal with his opponents. Those efforts culminated in a dramatic vote Friday that saw 13 of the 20 McCarthy opponents switch sides on the 12th ballot and a 14th opponent join them one ballot later.   

It set the stage for a historic and unprecedented moment on the House floor hours later. 

Matt Gaetz gets his moment 

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) speaks with House Democrats during the third day of the 118th session of Congress on Thursday, January 5, 2023. (Greg Nash)

Few would have predicted that McCarthy’s political future would come down to a vote by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as the clock ticked closer and closer to midnight Friday.  

The antipathy between Gaetz and McCarthy was an undercurrent to the week’s votes, and it only seemed to be getting more personal on Friday as the Florida Republican accused McCarthy of selling shares of himself to win the Speakership.

At another point, Gaetz asked, “Is this an exercise in vanity for someone who has done the math, taken the counts and is putting this institution through something that absolutely is avoidable?” 

Yet there McCarthy stood, having secured 216 votes for Speaker and needing a single additional vote to get him over the hump, waiting for Gaetz. At the time, McCarthy needed 217 to win a majority of those voting in the chamber.  

“Present,” Gaetz said, a move that lowered the threshold for McCarthy to win a majority of those voting — but not enough for him to win on that ballot.  

Republicans in the chamber — including trusted McCarthy ally Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who’d been sitting with Gaetz — stood to applaud, not immediately realizing they had yet to secure McCarthy’s magic number.  

Gaetz would not budge. His vote was present.  

Initially it looked like a complete disaster for McCarthy, whose allies moved to vote to adjourn the House until Monday. But as that adjournment vote took place, there was another switch — apparently a deal that involved all six of the final group of McCarthy detractors on the GOP side voting present.  

McCarthy and other Republicans switched their votes on adjournment, a new vote for Speaker was held and McCarthy again won 216 votes, but this time it was enough. Gaetz and four other Republicans joined Boebert in voting present, securing a majority for McCarthy.  

Gaetz, a political showman, was at the center of it all, winning more time on camera.  

How are these people going to get along? 

Rep. Michael D. Rogers (R-Ala.) is taken away form Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) following the fourteenth ballot for Speaker on Friday, January 6, 2023. (Greg Nash)

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.  

The photo of Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) physically restraining Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) — one hand on his shoulder and another on his chin in a near-wrestling move — was one of those pictures.  

Rogers at the time appeared to be interested in either having a discussion with Gaetz about his present vote or strangling him.  

It was a a sign of just how frustrated, tired and irritated many Republicans were with one another after a spectacle that hadn’t been seen in a Speaker’s vote in 100 years.  

Now House Republicans, with a tiny margin, will have to bridge these differences and work together to do all the things they want to do — conduct oversight, reduce spending, fight for tougher security at the border.  

There was a lot of talk of unity after the 15th ballot that made McCarthy the new Speaker.  

Yet the Speaker’s battle also portends more battles within the GOP over legislation and rules to come. 

There will be hard feelings over the humiliations McCarthy was forced to endure this week and the grandstanding some saw in the actions of lawmakers such as Gaetz. 

How McCarthy handles the reservations will be just one of the tough tests he faces going forward. 

McCarthy gave up a lot to win 

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is seen during the fourteenth ballot for Speaker on Friday, January 6, 2023. (Greg Nash)

To win the Speakership, McCarthy had to offer a number of rules changes and concessions to his opponents, most notably allowing a single member to issue a motion to vacate the chair that could force a vote on a new Speaker.  

A committee aligned with McCarthy said it would limit its role in GOP primaries, and conservative lawmakers will get more committee assignments — including on the House Rules panel that considers all legislation that goes to the floor.  

McCarthy also agreed to allow spending bills to be considered under open rules that in effect will make it much more difficult to win passage of basic appropriations measures.  

Many of the Republicans who were opposing McCarthy this week want to reduce government spending — both domestic spending and the Pentagon’s budget. The rule changes theoretically will give them much more power to do so.  

The concessions are likely to reduce McCarthy’s power, though he publicly downplayed any suggestions they would make him a weaker Speaker. 

The debt ceiling fight is the battle to watch 

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., right, talks with Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., during the tenth vote in the House chamber in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. (Associated Press)

The federal government spends more than it takes in, which for years has required Congress to periodically raise the nation’s borrowing limit to finance everything from Social Security and Medicare payments to military spending.  

Raising the debt ceiling does not itself increase or authorize new government spending, but it does allow the government to spend more.  

If the ceiling is not raised, the government cannot pay its bills.  

In 2011, the government came dangerously close to a default before then-President Obama and a GOP House managed to work out a deal.  

The next time the debt limit must be raised will be in August. How that will happen is anyone’s guess, but there are likely to be a lot of frayed nerves in Washington and on Wall Street in the months to come.  

“Is he willing to shut the government down rather than raise the debt ceiling?” Rep. Ralph Norman (S.C.), one of the Republicans who had been opposing McCarthy for Speaker this week before switching sides, said Wednesday. “That’s a non-negotiable item.”