After six ballots and still not being any closer to the speakership than when the votes began on the House floor, Kevin McCarthy may be poised to finally break the impasse that has kept him from his longtime dream of wielding the speaker's gavel.
Sources close to the embattled House Republican leader said his campaign team agreed Wednesday night to a proposal floated by the conservative Club for Growth to win over enough of the 20 House Republicans who have continuously voted for candidates other than McCarthy for speaker — and thus denied the Californian the 217 necessary to win.
It has been suggested that the Club for Growth deal could move about 10 votes to McCarthy. While not enough to make McCarthy speaker, it would give him tremendous momentum.
Under the Club for Growth's proposal, McCarthy would agree that his multi-million dollar political action committee, Congressional Leadership Fund, be "prohibited from spending money or providing grants to any super PAC to engage in open Republican primaries or against any Republican incumbent."
That would be a substantial agreement for McCarthy to make, but a critical and perhaps decisive one.
Club for Growth President David McIntosh, a former congressman from Indiana, told reporters that "assuming these principles are met, Club for Growth will support Kevin McCarthy for speaker."
The Club for Growth's support would remove an organization's opposition to McCarthy which was cited by several of the "Never McCarthy Nineteen" as a key reason for voting for other speaker candidates.
In addition, Team McCarthy hopes to win over other opponents by agreeing to a rules change permitting the offering of amendments to legislation when it is on the House floor.
Freshman Rep. Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, who described himself to reporters as a "soft no" on McCarthy, is considered very likely to support the Californian if he agrees to this change.
"There are some reasonable people among them," said a House Republican close to McCarthy, "Ralph Norman [South Carolina] is very reasonable and can be won over. Then there are others such as Matt Rosendale [Montana], who wants to run for the Senate next time and thinks it will make him a hero figure among conservatives."
Speaking to Newsmax on Wednesday afternoon, Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar underscored why McCarthy will remain in the race until he wins.
"In 2015, after he said some unfortunate things on TV about how the hearings on the massacre at Benghazi [when the U.S. ambassador was killed in Libya] and was widely attacked by Democrats, Kevin suddenly withdrew from the race for speaker because he felt it was the right thing to do for our country," recalled Moolenaar.
"Now he will stay in the race — and continue to have the unwavering support of 202 of us — because he feels it is the right thing to do for the country," he continued. "If someone with the support of almost 90% of his conference gets out of the race because 10% won't go along even when he is working with them, it will set a very bad precedent for future speakers."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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