Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is Leaving Congress

U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced that he is retiring from Congress at the end of this year. McCarthy’s term representing California’s 20^th congressional district is scheduled to end in January of 2025. The state will hold a special election to fill the seat. Until a replacement is elected, the open seat reduces the Republican’s already slim majority in the House of Representatives.  

McCarthy’s Career in the House 

Rep. McCarthy represented Bakersfield, California, for seventeen years in the House of Representatives. He also served as the 55^th Speaker of the House. He was elected Speaker in January 2023, after fifteen rounds of ballot voting. McCarthy was previously elected as the House Majority Whip in 2010, as House Majority Leader in 2014, and as House Republican Leader in 2018. 

Some Republican representatives were upset when Speaker McCarthy supported a funding bill to avoid a government shutdown this past fall. These Republicans were hoping to use the threat of the shutdown to achieve their own political goals. But McCarthy compromised with the Democrats in order to pass the funding bills necessary to keep the government functioning. In October 2023, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL.) introduced a “motion to vacate” to remove McCarthy as Speaker. Eight Republican representatives and all the Democratic representatives voted to remove McCarthy as House Speaker. McCarthy is the only Speaker of the House removed from power in the middle of a term. 

A New Leaders Upcoming Challenges  

Leadership of the House of Representatives has proven to be a challenging task. Members of Congress could not agree on who to elect as McCarthy’s replacement as Speaker of the House. Republican members of the House of Representatives were split in who they wanted to be the Speaker because different groups within the Republican Party have different political goals. 

After several failed nomination attempts and a few elections that did not achieve the minimum number of acceptable votes, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) was elected Speaker of the House on October 25.  

Johnson now faces the challenge of leading the members of the House of Representatives in a time of strong political disagreement. There are groups within the Republican party that disagree with other Republicans on how to guide to party to achieve their political goals. And the members of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party also disagree with one another frequently. Finding a way to make the House operate smoothly in these difficult conditions is a challenge that Johnson must navigate. 

Dig Deeper Use this House of Representatives website to look up the House representative for your congressional district. Go to the official website for the representative. Read about their political priorities and summarize what you discover.