One of Kevin McCarthy’s first acts as speaker of the House was to take a selfie with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right conspiracy theorist and election denier who has emerged as one of his staunchest allies. That image, which Greene immediately posted on social media, encapsulates the wager McCarthy […] Read more »
McCarthy speaker saga shows Trump is far from untouchable ahead of 2024
Kevin McCarthy’s seven-year-plus dream to become House speaker finally became reality early Saturday morning. The California Republican’s tumultuous journey concluded after six Republican holdouts voted “present,” allowing him to win on the 15th ballot with a lower majority threshold. McCarthy credited Donald Trump for his support in the speaker’s race, […] Read more »
How ‘representative’ is the 118th Congress?
After days of false starts, the House voted Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as the new speaker, and the 118th Congress was sworn in. But the demographic makeup of the new House and Senate may raise some questions about how truly “representative” of the nation those bodies are. The figures around […] Read more »
Polls show Americans are divided on the significance of January 6
Today marks two years since Americans turned on their televisions to watch something that many thought was impossible—a violent mob attacking the Capitol of the United States with the intention of disrupting the Electoral College vote count. … Some days of violence, such as the December 7 attack on Pearl […] Read more »
Kevin McCarthy’s flailing bid for Speaker of the House is not (only) about ideological differences
… Students of history and political science alike may note that extra-ideological factors are common in determining who wins leadership elections. Speakers have included both members near the middle and extremes of the distribution of ideological scores for their party, for example. Yet what is different this time is that […] Read more »
The ‘spoiler caucus’ is creating chaos
… At this point (Thursday afternoon), with 201 Republicans supporting McCarthy and 20 still opposed, 10 percent of the Republican conference members are dictating what the other 90 percent can and can’t do. … History shows us that political parties, wherever they are found, almost always have a few rebels […] Read more »