The immediate past Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, pulled his hat out of the ring to recapture the seat after a humiliating vote to oust him, making him the first Congressman to be removed from leadership in the middle of a term, per Olivia Beavers of Politico. His title is now Congressman.
According to Jake Sherman, McCarthy gave a lengthy, self-pitying speech to the GOP caucus. “I did it for the good of the conference. The Dems came to me to make a deal. I wasn’t going to make a deal. When eight people work with the Democrats, it’s not for the best of the conference. I got to be the 55th speaker — my goal has been to save the country. I love a lot of you. I saw your kids grow up. … I’m not going to sell my soul to Democrats. Ill still work to get you elected — maybe not all of you because I’m a free agent. When we come out of the next vote, let’s elect that person on the first round. if I have to be the sacrifice, so be it. We’re the only conservative face for America. I appreciate all of you.” [For clarification, the quotation marks are from Sherman’s Twitter-telling of the speech; it may or may not McCarthy’s speech verbatim.]
Sherman goes on to report the House has shut down for the week. The GOP caucus will hold a candidate forum next week and intend to bring a vote for the next Speaker to the floor on Wednesday, October 11th.