And Democrats couldn’t be happier
Kevin managed to keep the government from defaulting and losing his speakership which is something I didn’t think he was capable of doing. But it could be a Pyrrhic victory after all. The way they’re going they could end up losing the House in 2024:
As the drama between Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY and hardline conservatives roils the House, Democratic leaders are watching with total fascination — and giddiness.
For years, their own caucus has fallen in line behind a masterful political tactician who bent over backwards to protect her most vulnerable members — and by extension, her majority — often steamrolling progressives in the process. (Yes, we’re speaking of the one and only NANCY PELOSI.) Now, as Democrats see it, McCarthy is doing the exact opposite to protect his own gavel — and playing right into their hands.
Since becoming speaker, McCarthy has exposed his “majority makers” to votes on steep cuts to federal programs that benefit millions of Americans and, just last week, the reversal of a Biden administration rule that cracks down on a gun accessory used in several recent mass shootings. Both were priorities of the hard right and exposed members in swing districts to Democratic attacks.
House leaders typically give frontliners leeway to break with leadership on these kinds of votes to protect themselves politically. But with only a five-seat majority, Republicans don’t have much wiggle room right now — and that has Democrats ready to pounce.
“Vulnerable Republicans are going to have to answer for continuing to side with the extremists in their party,” Rep. SUZAN DelBENE (D-Wash.), the DCCC chair, told Playbook yesterday. Those votes, she said, will “cost them their seats” — and the House majority.
Democrats believe the votes will only become tougher. Republicans are in the process of writing appropriations bills more than $130 billion below bipartisan spending caps, setting up more roll calls on program cuts. There’s talk of impeaching DHS Secretary ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, a matter that divides the GOP conference, and potentially other officials, too.
And despite plenty of evidence that swing voters have sprinted toward Democrats in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, House Republicans have advanced multiple new abortion restrictions that could reach the floor later this Congress, including an appropriations rider tightening access to the abortion drug mifepristone.
The DCCC is already targeting the so-called “Biden 18,” Republican members from districts that the president carried in 2020. Earlier this spring, the group posted billboards in a dozen competitive districts that blasted vulnerable Republicans for refusing to push back on Donald Trump’s demands that the House defund law enforcement agencies investigating him.
The pressure on those members will only increase later this summer, as hardliners push McCarthy to undermine special counsel JACK SMITH’s investigation through the appropriations process. While several centrist Republicans told Playbook privately last week that the speaker would never force them to take such a toxic vote, Democrats aren’t so sure.
“Protecting or helping the vulnerable members avoid challenging votes seems incredibly low on [McCarthy’s] priority list,” said a Democratic official working on House races. “In battleground districts and where the election is going to be won or lost, these are not winning issues.”
Centrist Republicans privately say there’s a simple solution here: Ignore the right’s demands and just don’t allow tough votes on bills that have no prayer of passing the Democrat-controlled Senate anyway — let alone winning President JOE BIDEN’s signature.
Those members have allies on the outside. “[McCarthy] must minimize tough votes and keep squabbling within the party from dominating the media narrative,” said KEN SPAIN, a former NRCC comms director. “With the House on a razor’s edge, 2024 could be a ‘winner take all’ election with one party controlling all of Washington in a little over 18 months. The margin for error is extremely thin.”
But so far McCarthy has been much more interested in pleasing his right flank — and protecting his gavel — than in shielding his frontliners. DelBene said the DCCC stands ready to make Republicans pay with their majority.
“When McCarthy and his caucus continue to give in to their extreme right wing, they’re really showing voters that they’re out of touch with everyday families,” she said.
Good luck with all that Kev. I hope you enjoyed your one term.