Five House Republicans will vote collectively on Kevin McCarthy's bid for the House speaker role, and the group has already signaled it won't support the California Republican, Axios reported.
The five anti-McCarthy conservatives, known on Capitol Hill as the "Never Kevin Caucus," are GOP Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia, Matt Rosendale of Montana, and Ralph Norman of South Carolina. They are rallying behind Biggs for speaker.
"I'm not voting for him on Jan. 3," Biggs told Axios of McCarthy. Asked if there's anything McCarthy could do to change his mind, Biggs shook his head and said, "I could be dead, I guess."
Norman on Wednesday told reporters: "We all operate as five. ... We come as five, so we're going to agree on all [of the concessions we need]."
Gaetz told Axios: "We're going to be a 'no.' … I speak for myself, but I think the chance that the five of us don't vote together is pretty much zero."
Added Good: "I would just say that we all want the same things. And we're all committed together that we recognize that Kevin McCarthy is not the right person to be speaker and he's not going to be speaker. ... I'm not going to vote Kevin McCarthy."
Norman said McCarthy could possibly sway him by offering a plan to balance the budget in seven years.
"I got to have a seven-year plan, or 10 is as long as I'm going," Norman said. [But], "everybody's got different issues. Mine is the budget. Other people, just different things."