Donald Trump lost his sway over the Republican Party at a crucial moment as a handful of conservatives repudiated his call for GOP lawmakers to back Kevin McCarthy’s uphill fight to become House speaker.
(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump lost his sway over the Republican Party at a crucial moment as a handful of conservatives repudiated his call for GOP lawmakers to back Kevin McCarthy’s uphill fight to become House speaker.
The former president had thrown his weight behind McCarthy in a post on his Truth Social network on Wednesday morning: “It’s now time for all of our GREAT Republican House Members to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL.”
But just hours later, McCarthy fell short in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds of voting in the House, with 20 Republicans opposing his bid.
It’s further evidence that Trump’s grip on a party that he reshaped in his image has slipped. He’s taken the brunt of the blame for Republicans’ underwhelming 2022 midterm election showing, where they failed to take control of the Senate as Democrats added to their numbers. The House majority Republicans achieved is so narrow that it’s placed McCarthy in the precarious position of being able to lose no more than four votes to secure the gavel.
“The fact that he did that and not a single one of those 20 changed their standing is interesting,” David Winston, a Republican strategist, said in a telephone interview. “If you’re looking for a collateral event as to what this all means, that’s an important collateral event. Don’t look at it as an isolated event.”
Many of the former president’s staunchest supporters in Congress, such as Florida Republican Matt Gaetz and Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert, rejected Trump’s call to fall in line behind McCarthy.
Indeed, Boebert said on the House floor Wednesday that Trump had been calling the dissenters to tell them to “knock this off,” but that Trump should “tell Kevin McCarthy that ‘Sir, you do not have the votes, and it’s time to withdraw.’”
It’s no coincidence that these repudiations come as Trump’s been politically weakened in recent months, said Winston. The former president’s drawn criticism for calling for the US Constitution to be suspended to restore him to office, as well as widespread condemnation for hosting a dinner with two antisemites at his Florida home.
Trump’s waning dominance is reverberating throughout other segments of the GOP where he once loomed large. Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, like McCarthy a staunch supporter of the former president, is facing a contentious challenge in her reelection contest later this month.
Trump hasn’t made an endorsement in the RNC chair election, but McDaniel was his hand-picked candidate for the post in 2017. She’s opposed by Republicans who argue the GOP needs new leadership after disappointing results over the last six years.
“There is a growing divide between the leadership of the party and the base of the party, and if we don’t bridge that divide, we are risking permanent minority status as a party,” California attorney and RNC member Harmeet Dhillon, one of the candidates challenging McDaniel, said in a telephone interview. “I know that it’s not working, and I think I can do better.”
My Pillow Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mike Lindell has also said he’s running for the position. Dhillon said her support is increasing, and she doesn’t think McDaniel has enough votes to win on the first ballot when the RNC holds its winter meeting Jan. 25 in California — similar to McCarthy.
Dhillon pointed to surveys such as a Trafalgar Group poll of Republican voters conducted last month that showed 68% of respondents think the RNC is ineffective and and only 5.6% think McDaniel should be reelected.
But only 168 RNC members will vote in the chair election, and McDaniel said she’s confident she has the backing of almost two-thirds of them and will win on the first ballot. She said in a telephone interview that her support is growing in response to a “scorched-Earth” campaign being waged by Dhillon.
Speaking before the fifth vote was taken, McDaniel predicted Trump’s endorsement ultimately would sway House members blocking McCarthy’s path to speaker.
“We can’t be so divisive and awful to each other that Republicans won’t vote for each other,” McDaniel said. “We have got to unify and start focusing on beating the Democrats instead of destroying each other.”
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