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House Freedom Caucus Members Signal Opposition to McCarthy

November 11, 2022
Cullen McCue

Last Updated on November 11, 2022

A growing number of House Republicans — including House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) — have signaled opposition to House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for speaker. As establishment-aligned interest groups and influential figures attempt to pin Tuesday’s poor showing on President Trump, large swaths of the electorate are faulting GOP leadership. Both McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have been criticized for spending millions to attack Trump-aligned candidates in the primaries and then not spending enough on those candidates in the general.

During an interview with Fox News, U.S. Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) argued that Kevin McCarthy has not done nearly enough to oppose Democrat leadership and policies.

“His only priority the last two years has seemed to be able to get the majority and become speaker — just for the sake of having the majority and becoming speaker,” Good said. “He’s essentially had a two-year audition, where he had the exclusive opportunity to earn the vote of the conference, to demonstrate that he was willing to fight against the Biden-Pelosi-Schumer agenda. And he failed to do that.”

Good went on to say that he has heard significant pushback to McCarthy’s perceived ineptitude and unwillingness to firmly oppose the left from the electorate. “And all across the country, Republican voters continue to tell me and other members of Congress and candidates that they don’t support Kevin McCarthy because he’s not a true conservative and they want someone who will fight,” he said. “There’s many examples in the past two years where he’s failed to do that.”

Providing an example, the House Freedom Caucus member said that when he was sworn in two years ago, McCarthy promised stiff opposition to the Democrats. Kevin McCarthy reportedly said that Republicans will “control the floor” because they were going to “lead the fight.”

“And over and over, he’s failed to respond to our efforts to fight as a minority when there’s no real pressure in the majority,” Rep. Good said.

“He didn’t support our efforts to vacate the chair when Nancy Pelosi was at her weakest moments. He didn’t support our efforts to request recorded votes. He didn’t support our efforts to fight suspension bills. He has not supported our efforts to fight against the NDAA (Defense authorization bill) when we had the leverage to block it as Republicans because Democrats couldn’t pass it — a bad NDAA bill without Republican votes.”

“On issue after issue and time after time, he has failed to support our efforts to fight — truly fight — against an oppressive Democrat majority,” The Virginia congressman continued.

Other House Freedom Caucus members — including U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Ralph Norman (R-SC) — have signaled opposition to McCarthy in recent days.

Norman’s office stated that McCarthy called asking if he could count on the South Carolina congressman’s support for leadership, which he could not guarantee. Norman told reporters told reporters that “hopefully the leadership elections will be delayed,” adding that he is not sure that McCarthy has enough votes.

Matt Gaetz has explicitly rejected McCarthy’s continued leadership. The Florida congressman says he has spoken to many House GOP members, and “many who will join our ranks soon,” he said, adding that he does not think McCarthy will have enough votes to be speaker.

“None are actually inspired by Kevin McCarthy, though many feel financially beholden to him, because He is the Lebron James of special interest fundraising. In this last cycle,” Gaetz said. “Kevin McCarthy and his team raised half a billion dollars in campaign money, and that buys a lot of friends or at a minimum rents them.”

Just like a growing number of his Freedom Caucus colleagues, Gaetz called for a delay in leadership votes.

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