Bakersfield congressman elected speaker of the US House of Representatives
– USA Today reports –
Kevin McCarthy addresses the House after his election. Video by NBC News.
On 15th ballot, McCarthy wins the gavel
– House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy grabbed the speaker’s gavel just as Friday turned into Saturday, squelching a week-long, rancorous GOP rebellion that left the chamber rudderless for the longest period since before the Civil War. McCarthy, a Bakersfield congressman, represented Paso Robles before redistricting in 2011.
By a 216-212 vote, McCarthy, first elected in 2006, defeated New York Democrat Hakeem Jeffries and others for the job.
He was selected by his caucus to lead a House that is expected to be one of the most difficult Congresses any speaker has managed. His job will be even more arduous, his critics charge, because he’s been weakened by a slew of concessions that make him beholden to the right wing of his party.
“My father always told me, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish and now we need to finish strong for the American people,” he in his first speech to the chamber after being sworn in as speaker.
McCarthy prevailed on the 15th ballot, the most it took for any speaker to get the job since before the Civil War. At the end of the 14th ballot, an altercation between frustrated GOP lawmakers almost got physical on the House floor.
– Read the full story in USA Today
McCarthy is a fourth-generation resident of Kern County, immediately to the east of San Luis Obispo County. The grandson of a cattle rancher and the son of a firefighter, he grew up on the east side of Bakersfield.
At a young age, McCarthy fulfilled a dream of starting his own business by opening Kevin O’s Deli, a sandwich shop. He says he learned firsthand how government too often is an obstacle to success — a lesson that pulled him into public service.
McCarthy worked hard to grow his business, eventually selling the deli to pay his way through California State University Bakersfield, where he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in business.
He married his high school sweetheart, Judy. They still live in the first house they ever bought together – the Bakersfield home where they raised their two children, Connor and Meghan. He attended his son’s wedding in Cayucos in 2021.
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