House Minority Leaders McCarthy (R-CA) has been on a power high for most of the last few weeks.
After putting down a move against his leadership position, he surely thought it would be smooth sailing.
That, however, will not be the case.
Not Impressed
McCarthy needs 2018 votes to secure the House Speaker position for next term.
Right now, even though the GOP will have 222 members, he does not have the numbers.
There are five members that are not going to vote for him regardless.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is one of them, stating, “House Republicans need a leader with credibility across every spectrum of the GOP conference in order to be a capable fighting force for the American people.
“That person is not Kevin McCarthy.”
Republican House members Norman, Biggs, Good, and Rosendale have also expressed their disapproval of McCarthy.
If McCarthy cannot get them to change their minds, it means he is going to have to make deals with at least a handful of Democrats to vote “present” to secure the vote.
For every two members that vote present, the number needed to secure the Speakership goes down by one.
Now, this is where it gets really interesting.
The recent death of a Democrat House member has made this even more interesting.
Democrats were expected to have 213 seats, which meant that if all five members voted for the Democrat member, Jeffries would actually defeat McCarthy for the Speaker position.
With Dems now only having 212 seats, Jeffries would also fall short by a single vote.
Now, if all five of those members vote present or do not show up for the vote, McCarthy’s number goes down to 215, and he would more than likely have the votes for that number.
Source: Fox News
