Overwhelming majority of House GOP’s most conservative members voted to keep McCarthy

As eight Republican rebels voted alongside House Democrats to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from his post as speaker Tuesday afternoon, a majority of the House’s most conservative members in the House Freedom Caucus voted to keep him. 

While several members in the House Freedom Caucus voted to oust McCarthy, including Bob Good, R-Va.; Ken Buck, R-Colo.; Matt Rosendale, R-Mont.; and Rep. Eli Craine, R-Ariz., a majority of its members voted in favor of keeping McCarthy at the helm of the House GOP. 

Caucus members Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.; Chip Roy, R-Texas; Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; Ben Cline, R-Va.; Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.; and Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., among others, voted in favor of keeping McCarthy — despite several members feuding with him over government spending last week.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Boebert said her vote against the motion to vacate wasn’t in support of the speaker but “rather the timing of this measure.”

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“Hence, ‘no for now,’” she said. “Seeing as legislative days were added to pass the remaining eight appropriations bills to properly fund the federal government, I didn’t want to spend valuable time on a long, protracted speaker fight where most expected Kevin McCarthy to go round after round as he did in January.

“Now that Rep. McCarthy has been vacated and will not run for speaker again, we finally have a chance to elect a trustworthy speaker who can unify this conference, uphold the agreement [and] rules package that I helped to negotiate in January and pave the way for twelve appropriations bills that will significantly slash government spending.”

While Jordan also voted against the motion to vacate, he announced his bid for speakership Wednesday, making him the first GOP lawmaker to throw his hat in. 

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“Secure the border. Get spending under control. Fix the institution. Unify the party,” Jordan posted on X, formerly Twitter, Wednesday. 

Roy, who also voted to keep McCarthy, said on X Tuesday his “position has been and remains that the status quo of massive spending, open borders, funding proxy wars, and weaponized government is unacceptable.

“That said, I am voting against this motion because I disagree with the tactical play call. I do not believe that you pull the coach at the beginning of the fourth quarter, which is where we currently stand. I remain focused on laying out the possible paths to secure wins “

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Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a measure against McCarthy known as a motion to vacate Monday night, accusing him of breaking promises he made to win the speaker’s gavel in January.

“We’re concerned about the future of the conservative agenda in the house; I would say that the conservative agenda was being paralyzed by Speaker McCarthy,” Gaetz told reporters after Tuesday’s historic vote to oust McCarthy.

“We didn’t even send in a subpoena to Hunter Biden, our oversight was lackluster, our spending priorities were misaligned,” he added. “The top line budget was going to lead to more inflation, more debt, more challenges — so the best way to advance the conservative agenda is to move forward with a new speaker.”

Democrats signaled early on Tuesday they would not be inclined to help McCarthy. 

“Democrats are ready to find bipartisan common ground,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said before the vote. “Our extreme colleagues have shown no willingness to do the same. They must find a way to end the House Republican civil war.”

In January, it took 15 rounds of voting until McCarthy was elected.

McCarthy angered hardliners over the weekend when he passed a short-term spending bill known as a continuing resolution to keep the government open for 45 days to avert a government shutdown and give lawmakers more time to cobble together 12 individual spending bills.

Fox News’ Liz Elkind contributed to this report. 

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