Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy plans to leave Congress at the end of this year. Making the statement in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday, the ousted Republican leader announced that he will not seek reelection in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“I’m leaving the House, but not the fight,” he wrote. “My work is only getting started in my next chapter.”
Though he gave no specific details, he promised “to serve America in new ways.” He called himself an optimist and the son of a firefighter, and recalled his 17-year tenure as a congressman from California.
Reuters opines that fellow Republicans are less optimistic about “the path that lies ahead for their narrow and fractious majority.”
McCarthy’s departure comes on the heels of the ousting of New York’s Republican George Santos last week, which reduced the GOP majority from four to only three seats. Once McCarthy is gone, that number goes to two. The party will take another hit in March with the exit of Ohio Republican Bill Johnson as he leaves office to assume the presidency of Youngstown State University.
NBC News reporter Ryan Nobles says that McCarthy’s announcement does not come as a surprise, as Republicans removed him as their head in early October.
Since McCarthy’s is a red district, it is likely a Republican will replace him. (Not so for Santos.) But based on the election process, each vacant seat could take anywhere from many weeks to several months to fill.
