Republican officially announces he will challenge Kevin McCarthy as speaker: Andy Biggs throws his hat in the ring – making it harder for the GOP leader to take the gavel
- Rep. Andy Biggs, former chairman of the Freedom Caucus, announced his run on Tuesday
- He has little chance of becoming speaker, but could let Kevin McCarthy go first
- Business in the House of Representatives could grind to a halt if Biggs can take just four votes away
- Members of Congress are due to elect their speaker next month
- McCarthy has been waiting for the post of speaker for years.
Republican leader Kevin McCarthy’s path to becoming speaker of the House was complicated on Tuesday when far-right rioter Andy Biggs announced he was running for the post.
As he launched his campaign, he accused McCarthy of being the establishment candidate and instead vowed to use every procedural tool at his disposal to thwart the Democrats.
Republicans will elect their leader when the new Congress meets next month.
And Bigg’s guerrilla candidacy could shut down business in the House of Representatives.
“I’m running to be a public speaker to break the establishment,” Arizona native Biggs wrote on Twitter. “Kevin McCarthy was created, promoted and nurtured by the establishment.”
Rep. Andy Biggs announced Tuesday that he will face Republican leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy in the race for speaker of the House in January
Biggs announced he is running in a tweet and sharing a comment on the Daily Caller
Biggs, a former leader of the House Freedom Caucus, has previously lost to McCarthy.
The hardliner lost 188-31 in an internal Republican vote for the nomination.
And while he has almost no chance of winning the hammer, he can show McCarthy doesn’t have enough support to win.
McCarthy needs a majority of the incoming congressional votes and can therefore only afford to lose four Republican votes.
“People are thrilled that the reign of spokeswoman Nancy Pelosis’ far left is ending. The question is whether we are being treated with the status quo, which is moving us along the same path, albeit perhaps more slowly,” Biggs wrote in an op-ed published by the Daily Caller.
“Are we going to choose an established Republican speaker — think Paul Ryan, or in this case Ryan’s right-hand man, Kevin McCarthy.”
Biggs had challenged McCarthy for the party’s top spot in a closed-door vote in November and was unsuccessful. He and four other GOP members of the House of Representatives have said they plan to vote against McCarthy on Jan. 3 – and McCarthy can only lose four
Democrats will likely support their own leader as speaker, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, but won’t win a majority either.
If no candidate receives a majority, members continue to vote until a winner is found.
House business cannot go on without a speaker, so members simply have to keep voting, throwing Congress into chaos.
McCarthy has been waiting for the post of speaker for years.
He had run for the position with House Speaker John Boehner’s resignation in 2015, but dropped out of the running after making controversial comments suggesting the Republican investigations into Benghazi and Hillary Clinton were politically motivated in order to a take out the leading Democratic presidential candidate.
McCarthy eventually assumed leadership of the party in January 2019 after Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives and House Speaker Paul Ryan retired.
But alongside Biggs, at least four other GOP members: Reps. Matt Gaetz, Ralph Norman, Bob Good and Matt Rosendale, say they will oppose his bid on the House floor.