Most Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted against Kevin McCarthy’s relief bill on Friday have been a thorn in his side before he was elected chairman. They tend to cluster ideologically on the far right side of the political spectrum.
About three-quarters of the 21 Republicans who voted against McCarthy’s stopgap spending bill were endorsed by the House Freedom Caucus campaign arm in the 2022 midterm elections. Six members of the group are serving in Congress for the first time.
Eleven opposed McCarthy’s speaker bid
In January, 20 Republicans nearly derailed McCarthy’s ambitions to become chairman by voting against him multiple times. Eleven of them were among those who stood firm against his emergency funding measure on Friday.
McCarthy’s five-day fight for the chairman, by 15 votes, foreshadowed how difficult it would be for him to rally Republican lawmakers to unite behind basic tasks like passing funding bills or raising the federal debt limit.
Notably, Representatives Wesley Hunt of Texas and Ken Buck of Colorado returned to Washington at Mr. McCarthy’s request to vote in his favor as speaker. And Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia joined Mr. McCarthy in the speaker fight and was kicked out of the Freedom Caucus over the summer.
Eighteen voted against suspending the debt ceiling
These predictions came true last spring, as the United States rushed to meet a deadline to raise the government’s borrowing limit or face bankruptcy.
With far-right members of his caucus rioting over suspending the debt ceiling, Mr. McCarthy was forced to make a deal with President Biden, further infuriating the already volatile faction.
A third of Republican groups in the House of Representatives ultimately opposed the debt deal, including 18 of the 21 members who this week blocked the temporary measure to fund the government. (Ms. Greene and Representative Troy Nehls of Texas voted in favor of raising the debt ceiling, while Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado did not vote.) In another blow to Mr. McCarthy, the bipartisan measure passed with more Democrats than Republicans.
Eight brought the House to a standstill in June
The following week, about a dozen rioters brought the House to a standstill by rejecting a procedural measure that established rules for legislative debate, usually a simple party-line vote. They did this to punish Mr. McCarthy for making a deal with Mr. Biden to suspend the debt limit. Eight of the members who refused to support the temporary measure to keep the government running were part of this group.