Former House Speaker launches campaign to unseat lawmakers who removed him

Deseret News ^ | April 2, 2024 | Brigham Tomco

[T Ruth]

Several frustrated House Republicans are breaking with congressional norms to boost the primary opponent of House Freedom Caucus chairman Bob Good.

The Virginia Republican was one of eight lawmakers who voted to remove their party’s leader, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, in October. McCarthy, who resigned in December, now plans to return the favor.

McCarthy, and his friends on the Hill, including House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., have endorsed and fundraised for Good’s primary challenger, state Sen. John McGuire, CNN reported on Sunday.

The delayed fallout from the removal of McCarthy forms part of a larger battle over how Republicans approach policymaking in the House.

***

But the electoral consequences of unseating McCarthy are coming back to haunt more than just Good. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Eli Crane, R-Ariz., have also been designated as targets for McCarthy’s primary operation, Politico reported in February.

“The reason the powers that be — former Speaker McCarthy and his allies — are trying to exact revenge against those that stood against him is because (Crane) disrupted the power structure of D.C. It was the first time that had happened,” a person close to Crane told the Deseret News on the condition of anonymity.

As a freshman lawmaker representing northern Arizona, Crane has stood out by embodying the ethos of the House Freedom Caucus. From his first week in office, when he became the only newcomer to oppose McCarthy in all 15 rounds of his speaker’s race, Crane has refused to go along with the majority of his party, instead siding with Freedom Caucus members to leverage the GOP’s narrow House majority to exact concessions and reform the spending process.

[vivenne]

What?

[bboise]

It always has been a war between the rhinos and conservatives

[drypowder]

Clearly Kevin McCarthy is a swamp puke so the swamp is retaliating

[Trumpisourlastchance]

The GOP is proof that corrupt scum rises to the top.

[mass55th]

Good luck with that Kevin. Revenge is always a reason to destroy your party and your country, when you’re a rino.

[redheadedshannon]

😵🫣🙄 Sweet Lord! Between the entitled, retaliatory establishment fools & the kamikaze burn-it-all-down MAGAs, we have descended into a petty, self-involved intramural circular firing squad, who are apparently in such a strong position & on such an unbelievable winning streak that they can ignore the commie leftists on the war march & the fact that it’s a gigantic ELECTION YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RUFKM!!🤬😡😠 But please, let’s ignore the totalitarians in our house so we can bitch back & forth with others who we are normally allied & united with in opposition against the actual threat. Both groups are equally petty & equally at fault for behaving like idiots. Big question is, when your coalition has lost sight of its most important jobs: patriotism, limited immigration, defense of Constitutional norms, traditional values, nationalist free market economics & a libertarian view on government scope & dominating & winning elections, what are the options? 3rd parties are a losers choice. One thing is obvious though, neither the establishment nor MAGAs should be in charge of election strategy given that neither group seems capable of focusing on electoral strategy, increasing our vote or refraining from petty bs 🙄

[MinorityRepublican]

Are you a Democrat?

[ProgressingAmerica]

I hate comments like this. The situation we are looking at cannot more clearly be “us” vs. “them”. It is so clear. There’s us conservatives over here, and then there’s them republicans over there. Two distinct and very clear battle lines. It’s just so..... it cannot be more clear. Us, and them.

The GOP Establishment is always attacking conservatives, they did this flagrantly as well back during the Tea Party. They did this to Reagan.

[DoughtyOne]

McCarthy confirms my darkest opinions of him every few
days.