Kevin McCarthy: The First 15 Years in Congress and the Challenges They’re Putting Towards the Right Thinge: How Great Was Your Voting Experience?

His success rests on keeping rank-and-file Republicans almost completely unified behind him and already there are signs of trouble, as a handful of right wing lawmakers say they will not support him for speaker. “I have spoken with many Republicans in Congress and many who will join our ranks soon. None are actually inspired by Kevin McCarthy,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said on his podcast last week.

Bob Good of Virginia is a member of the Freedom Caucus, which has led to doubts about McCarthy’s grip on power. “He absolutely should be concerned,” Good told Fox News. “There absolutely will be a challenge to Kevin McCarthy’s leadership bid.”

Kevin McCarthy says his political career started when he gambled on the California lottery as a kid. I scratched out my first three tickets. The most money you could win was $5,000. I scratched a few of them and three of them said $5,000. And I had never played the game before so I go back up to the checker and say, ‘You know, as I read this: Did I win?’ I was one of the first winners in California,” McCarthy recalled in a 2005 conversation with high school seniors recorded by CSPAN. He used the windfall to open up a deli named Kevin O’s and then sell it to help pay for his college education. There he started working for his then-representative, Republican Bill Thomas, for the next 15 years. He was elected party leader immediately after he won his seat in the California State Assembly. “I never like to refer to myself as the minority leader, I refer to myself as the Republican leader. I’m proud of my party,” he said at the time. When Thomas announced he would retire in 2006, McCarthy succeeded his former boss in Congress. McCarthy has never won a general election with less than half the vote and only faced token opposition for his hometown seat.

He entered congress as a small government conservative, which is typical of the Bush era. His first speech on the House floor was in opposition to a 2007 Democratic bill to raise the minimum wage. “I came to Congress to work to increase opportunities for all Americans, not to harm workers and small businesses.” Often described as sunny and gregarious, with an insider’s savvy and an obsession with tactical politics, McCarthy was quickly dubbed a young “rising star” in the party, along with then Congressmen Eric Cantor of Virginia and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Together the trio were the minority party’s self-proclaimed “Young Guns” who wrote a 2010 book, went on a book tour, and produced a glossy Hollywood style ad to promote their agenda, and themselves. Common sense conservatives from across the country joined. Together they are ready to make history. The ad stated that they were the Young Guns. McCarthy was credited with helping recruit several outsider candidates who ran in the 2010 tea party wave to run in Republican primaries, and as a result of that he became the majority whip and gave the Republicans a majority. A more right-wing, combative style of lawmaker came about as a result of the majority and the party’s Young Guns became part of the party establishment. The candidate who ran to his right defeated the congressman in the Republican primary, forcing him out. McCarthy became majority leader after the event. “They elected a guy who spent a lot of his time going around recruiting many of these individuals to get the majority. Look, I’ve always had to struggle for whatever we wanted to overcome,” he told reporters, when asked if he was conservative enough to lead the Conference. Despite being stymied by a Democrat in the White House, House Republicans continued to take out their inability to get anything done on their own leadership. The speaker of the United States was forced to resign after a months long campaign led by MarkMeadows who became President Trump’s last chief of staff. McCarthy withdrew his bid to succeed him after it was revealed that he did not have the support of the most conservative wing of the party. He said that if we are going to unite and be strong, a new face is needed. The speaker’s deputy, McCarthy, remained despite Paul Ryan stepping in to the role.

Donald Trump’s stunning 2016 presidential victory once again realigned the political interests of Republican. Tea Party style opposition to spending fell way to loyalty tests to the new leader of the party. McCarthy worked his way in to Trump’s good graces while Ryan and Trump were often at odds over social media. He once bragged to The Washington Post that after noticing Trump’s favorite Starburst flavors were the red and pink ones, he made a point to deliver a jar of them to the president as a gift.

And despite the back-and-forth on Trump, the former president supported McCarthy’s run for speaker and made calls on his behalf for the holdout votes. Trump has publicly referred to McCarthy as “My Kevin.”

McCarthy’s efforts to win over Trump loyalists in the House were refocused, he voted against Trump’s second impeachment for inciting insurrection and helped oust Liz Cheney from the party leadership for her criticism of Trump. Cheney has since never missed an opportunity to question McCarthy’s fitness for public office. “When Minority Leader McCarthy has had the opportunity to do the right thing or the thing that serves his own political purpose, he always chooses to serve his own political purpose,” she recently told NBC.

That graduating student wasn’t then-senior Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who on Saturday became the House speaker for the 118th US Congress, a powerful position that puts him second in line to the American presidency.

Marshall Dillard, a friend of McCarthy, says he was most likely to succeed. “I’m sure he’s surprised some of his teachers. You’d have never thought this if you saw Kevin in high school.”

Kevin M. McCarthy, the Drillers, was born and raised on the Bakersfield, California, capitol of the 20th congressional district

The lighthearted teasing traces back to Dillard and McCarthy on the high school football field in Bakersfield, California. The team was and is still called “The Drillers,” a reference to the oil industry of the district. Bakersfield is one of the biggest cities in the state’s 20th Congressional District.

It’s the district McCarthy represents as one of the most powerful Republican lawmakers in the country. With House Republicans holding a slim majority in the 118th Congress, a group of GOP hard-liners prompted a messy and historic floor fight for control of the speaker’s gavel. After voting had spilled into a fifth day, McCarthy broke through by conceding to a series of demands that weakened the power of the speakership. But ultimately, he won the gavel.

He is known here as the son of a firefighter whose less-than- stellar grades would suggest a less powerful career path. McCarthy’s lack of polish, which is very similar to the town that raised him, will offer lessons for today’s speakership.

“He made up for it because he was scrappy, and he worked hard,” says Dillard. “In football, he wasn’t the biggest person. He wasn’t the fastest person. He was not the strongest person. He was going to give everything he had.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/08/politics/kevin-mccarthy-view-from-home/index.html

The first 100 years of Kevin McCarthy’s Bakersfield family farm: A moment from his childhood to his present role as a teacher and a friend

McCarthy grew up in Bakersfield with Catherine Fanucchi and she now calls him a friend. She, like Dillard, left the Central Valley for school and a career – hers was as a lawyer. But home beckoned, and she joined her family farm, which traces its Bakersfield origins 100 years back.

“Before he was going to ask her out, that’s the only time I saw him nervous,” remembers Dillard. McCarthy was in sports, classes, and clubs for the rest of the day with an ambition that overshadowed his credentials.

Dillard, now the principal of William Penn Elementary in Bakersfield, says a single moment from their teenage years speaks to the man who now leads the US House of Representatives. Dillard was the leader of the Bakersfield High School football team. He recalls a time when their high school was scheduled to play against a team from a notoriously racist rival high school. Dillard was reassured by McCarthy and the other players that they were going to have to come through them.

Dillard says that it made their bond stronger. Through the years the men have shared their stories of parenthood and their struggles. Dillard declined to share his political leanings or say if he even agrees with McCarthy’s politics: “He always gets my vote. Politics is politics. They do what they do. I have a personal relationship with Kevin.

McCarthy’s Frozen Yogurt is a sponsor on the local business sponsorship page. McCarthy spoke about his first business, “Kevin O’s Deli”, and his uncle’s yogurt shop.

Dillard remembers that Kevin O’s was located in the corner of the yogurt shop. Dillard received a free sandwich from his friend when he came back from school.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/08/politics/kevin-mccarthy-view-from-home/index.html

Kevin McCarthy: A Californian Activist who came from Washington, and how to help the oil industry: How Kevin and Paul Stine learned to work together during his internship at the Capitol

“I would never see him staying down,” Fanucchi says of McCarthy. “He’s not that guy. He sees the sunny side of the street, and he will find it.

McCarthy would not stay at that sandwich shop long, sending in an application while he was in college to be a 1987 summer intern in Washington with then-Rep. Bill Thomas, a Republican from California.

He did not make the cut for the summer, so he decided to join the field office in the fall. “He will mention in speeches often: ‘I’m the congressman from the district that turned me down to be an intern.’ It’s a true story.”

McCarthy was learning about politics in Washington and knew how to work for Thomas. Ambition and an ability to engage with nearly everyone separated him from others.

The criticism came on top of Thomas’ first harsh public comments about his former staffer and friend shortly after the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol. Thomas accused McCarthy of lying about Donald Trump’s election in order to win the election for him.

McCarthy said that the president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.

If Republicans get back the House, McCarthy will bring back some of his party’s most controversial members on committees, including Paul Gosar of Arizona.

The political malleability is familiar to Bakersfield conservative Paul Stine. The men have known each other since 1995, battling when they were young Republicans. “Kevin is the most adaptable politician I have ever seen in my life,” says Stine.

“He comes from here,” Fanucchi says of McCarthy. He has access to us and people who can help us tell our story. The central valley of California is powered by Ag which requires water and space. I don’t believe that you have to think like me to do something good for our nation or Kern County. I think you have to have clear eyes and a strong mind and work hard.”

Noerr has worked in and around the oil industry for most of his life. His town and the entire district relies on the energy industry for jobs and money but is seeing a rapid evolution as oil production gets slammed.

“By Kevin McCarthy coming from this area, understanding the need and the opportunity to integrate all those resources for the betterment of mankind, that is going to be critical to getting rid of the fantasies being peddled of some and the misunderstanding of so many,” says Noerr.

Fanucchi, the Bakersfield farmer, declines to express her politics and state whether she agrees with McCarthy’s positions. More important to her is having a powerful representative in Washington who understands the challenges of feeding the nation in today’s economy.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/08/politics/kevin-mccarthy-view-from-home/index.html

Noerr’s message to McCarthy: “We will find a common ground” — a no-holds note in the House of Representatives

The slim majority his party now holds in the House may be a blessing to his district, rather than a challenge.

McCarthy needs to get rid of the deep rifts that have been created recently. We can find the common ground,” Noerr says. “Instead of having arguments, we have conversations. We will find a common ground. Is he able to do that? Absolutely, I think he can.”