Back in their districts, House speaker holdouts get cheers, jeers and shrugs

MCKINNEY, Tex. — Ben Zeno reveled in the chaos his new congressman helped unleash in Washington this week.

Rep.-elect Keith Self (R-Tex.) had joined about 20 other GOP lawmakers who repeatedly opposed Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for House speaker — his first act in the Capitol bringing the chamber to a days-long, historic standstill. Many Republicans were furious and worried their caucus would fail to get anything done after retaking the House this fall with a small, fractured majority.

Not Zeno, who praised Self for challenging the GOP establishment he says has long failed voters. He gave a deep sigh after learning that Self had flipped to McCarthy on Friday amid negotiations, paving the way for McCarthy to claim the speaker’s gavel hours later in a dramatic late-night showdown.

“I like the fact that they’ve kicked up the dust a little and said, ‘You’re going to listen to us,’” Zeno said of the holdouts. The 48-year-old said he would contact Self’s office to learn exactly why he changed his vote, adding that if Self turns out to be a “sycophant” he won’t vote for him again.

Interviews with constituents of Self and another freshman lawmaker who opposed McCarthy until the final vote — Rep.-elect Eli Crane (Ariz.) — helped to explain Republicans’ extraordinary struggle to reach consensus, which left Congress in limbo for four days and put bitter GOP rifts on display. Some people lamented dysfunction in Congress but weren’t sure whom to blame or called it business as usual; others said they were apathetic about politics and uninterested in the convoluted drama. And many voters were thrilled at the holdouts’ disdain for the GOP establishment. McCarthy’s opponent represent solidly conservative districts, increasingly common as gerrymandering has shrunk the number of competitive seats nationwide.

“What I did today was, I voted my district,” Self told local news station WFAA this week to explain his opposition to McCarthy, who has led the GOP caucus for four years. Self represents Texas’s 3rd Congressional District, which got significantly redder this past election cycle after the state’s Republicans squeezed more seats out of redistricting. In 2020, the district favored former president Donald Trump by just one percentage point; under the new lines, it would have favored Trump by 14 points.

“I’ve had a year and a half of hearing from my constituents telling me that they did not want the status quo up here,” Crane echoed in an interview Friday with right-wing news outlet One America News Network.

Self and Crane backed off after a cascade of concessions from McCarthy that would give the party’s right flank more leverage, changes that many worry will lead to more gridlock down the road. In a statement posted to Facebook on Friday afternoon, Self said he switched his vote “to show support” for “significant” proposed changes to House rules. “It has become clear to me that a couple of individuals are simply obstructionists, more interested in self-promotion than restoring the Republic,” he added.

Crane and five other Republicans resisted half a day longer but ultimately changed their votes to “present” in a 15th attempt to elect a speaker.

Republican lawmakers and operatives looking to 2024 are already sounding alarms about stoking voters’ fears of the party’s far right after a midterm election in which Democrats cast the GOP as extreme and thwarted predictions of a red wave. Yet some people said they cared little about what happened in the speaker fight — some because they didn’t believe Congress got much done in the first place, some because they had deliberately stopped paying attention to politics.

Crane’s opposition to McCarthy was barely known by some residents of Maricopa, Ariz., which is part of the redrawn 2nd congressional seat that Crane won in November.

Anthony Martinez, 36, said he is concerned about inflation and gas prices but didn’t think the leader of the House would significantly affect his life. “I feel like everything’s going to work out good for us, no matter who’s in office,” he said as he reeled in a catch while fishing in a pond. “I’m just not into it.”

Fishing with three small sons nearby, Daniel James, 33, said he’d read a bit about the drama on Reddit and online.

“It’s confusion — it looks like chaos in there,” said James, who leans conservative. “It looks like there’s no facilitator in there. It just looked kind of crazy … To me, it just feels like it’s normal.”

Back in Texas, Caroline Curdy was frustrated with the conflict. A right-leaning independent who voted for Self, she hoped Republicans would use their new, slim House majority to focus on issues such as migrants at the southern border. Instead she waited impatiently this week for the lawmakers to “stop this grandstanding and come together and start working on the stuff that they were elected to start doing.”

Around her, however, plenty of people were happy to see ultraconservative lawmakers disrupt what one man denounced as “groupthink.” All of the holdouts represent Republican-leaning areas and many won by big margins.

“The longer it goes, I’m thinking they’re standing up for me,” said a Republican in Self’s district who asked to be identified only by his first name, Ned.

McKinney resident Lisa Burris, 60, has met McCarthy through fundraisers and figured he was the obvious pick. But her doubts grew during this week’s showdown, and she said she was “kind of digging” the holdouts’ suggestion of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for speaker.

McCarthy “is establishment,” she said, “and I’m ready for a change.”

The vast majority of House Republicans coalesced quickly behind McCarthy, the minority leader since 2019, for speaker. But McCarthy can only afford to lose a few GOP votes because all Democrats oppose him, and five freshmen as well as longtime members of the House Freedom Caucus voted against McCarthy for three days straight this week.

McCarthy won over 15 of the holdouts Friday afternoon following a breakthrough in negotiations. McCarthy fell just short of the votes he needed in a final push that night, and lawmakers moved to adjourn — then made one more attempt after a flurry of heated conversations on the floor. With McCarthy’s momentum growing, six critics voted “present” rather than selecting another candidate: Crane, Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.), and Matthew M. Rosendale (Mont.). That allowed McCarthy to win.

McCarthy’s concessions to his opponents include allowing any member of the House to trigger a vote on removing the speaker, something McCarthy had previously ruled out. Holdouts also said McCarthy made promises about negotiations to raise the country’s debt ceiling, which loom later this year; a standoff over that issue could trigger a fiscal crisis. McCarthy allies have said vows to tie a debt ceiling increase to spending cuts are “aspirational.”

Some voters across the political spectrum feared the speaker fight only foreshadows a chaotic, unproductive term to come.

“I didn’t expect it to be like this,” said Anne Hooks, 38, who leans conservative, voted for Self and worries that the protracted speakership battle is just the beginning. “I think they’re going to spend a lot of time fighting more than getting things done … There’s so much room and movement that could happen for good. And instead they’re all just going to be fighting like little kids.”

Wingett-Sanchez reported from Maricopa, Ariz.