As House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy continues to fight off intraparty opposition to his speakership bid, the California Republican is reportedly offering key compromises to GOP lawmakers in exchange for their support.
In a series of private meetings this week, McCarthy pledged to a number of Republicans that he would reduce the required number of votes to call a floor vote to oust a sitting House speaker in an effort to win their support, according to CNN. The latest compromise comes as McCarthy seeks to win over critics while maintaining support he has already garnered from elsewhere in the party.
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Under current House rules, a majority of lawmakers in the majority party must call for a floor vote to vacate the speaker’s chair. However, McCarthy is offering to lower that threshold significantly, giving critics a way to oust him from the leadership position if they disapprove of his performance, according to CNN.
McCarthy hasn’t settled on a final number he would change the threshold to be, but it could be as small as five lawmakers, sources told the outlet.
The revelations come just days before the House is set to elect its new speaker, a position that McCarthy has already positioned himself to take despite facing renewed opposition in recent weeks.
To secure the gavel, McCarthy needs a majority of voting members — in this case, 218 lawmakers — to vote for him when his nomination goes before the entire House floor on Tuesday. At least five GOP lawmakers have publicly said they won’t back his speakership bid, and McCarthy can’t afford to lose more than four — possibly putting his nomination in peril.
Some battleground Republicans have made their loyalties clear, with more than a dozen GOP lawmakers who won their races in states where President Joe Biden won in 2020 pledging their support for McCarthy.
“Let us be clear: we are not only supporting Kevin McCarthy for Speaker, but are not open to any so-called shadow ‘consensus candidate’ — regardless of how many votes it takes to elect Speaker-designate McCarthy,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter released on Thursday. “There is no other conservative candidate that can garner the support of 218 Republicans for Speaker — period.”
The members voiced concern about potential concessions McCarthy is looking to make with his GOP critics to secure his speakership bid but noted they would back the current House minority leader regardless.
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“We remain concerned that some of these changes could unintentionally yield more power to our Democrat colleagues,” they wrote. “Nevertheless, we are willing to support these changes if, and only if doing so, will bring our conference together around Speaker-designate McCarthy as our nominee for Speaker.”
If no candidate wins a majority of the votes cast during the roll call vote at the beginning of the Congress, the House will repeat the roll call until a speaker is elected. Congress has not had to repeat a roll call vote to elect a House speaker since 1923. McCarthy has vowed not to back down, noting he would go through several rounds of ballots until he wins the speaker position.
