Four times House Republicans have defied leadership and embarrassed the party

Eyes have been on the House for months as hard-line conservatives within the Republican Party have stoked fires and prompted infighting through a delay of votes, the ousting of a speaker, and threats to vacate the chair for minor frustrations. 

The level of chaos in the lower chamber has placed House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other House GOP leaders in tough spots, forcing them to pull bills or, if they do go to the floor, go through several rounds of voting to pass legislation. 

Around Thanksgiving last year, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) put his fellow Republicans in the hot seat, yelling at them to “give me one thing — one! — that I can go campaign on and say we did. One!” In his and several other House Republicans’ eyes, they have little to run on this November.

Many of these roadblocks can be credited to a rise in infighting over the last few years between the right flank of the Republican Party and more centrist GOP members in Congress. Even without opposition from Democrats, disagreements have prevented leadership from moving bills and resolutions forward, often stalling the lower chamber for days or even weeks to work out the struggles within their own party.

Here are four times in recent memory that conservatives in Congress have defied their leaders and placed the Republican Party in a bad light.

Johnson stalls and pulls important bills

Since becoming speaker, Johnson has flown by the seat of his pants, well aware of the hard-line conservatives waiting in the shadows, hovering a possible motion to vacate over his head. This has caused him to stall or even pull bills off the floor for consideration.

House Democrats are pushing Johnson and other House leaders to take up the Senate’s $95 billion defense spending bill that allocates billions of dollars in foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel, a divisive topic among Republicans. 

With very limited options thanks to his hard-line members, Johnson appears to be scrambling for a plan that doesn’t cost him his gavel. He requested a meeting with President Joe Biden to discuss the legislation, but House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said the president “refuses” to meet with the speaker.

Most recently, on Wednesday, House Republicans on the Intelligence Committee reportedly forced the speaker’s hand and pushed him to withdraw a bill renewing a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act from floor consideration. Many committee members threatened to tank a procedural vote that would effectively kill the legislation should it go before the full House.

Kevin McCarthy makes history twice

Former California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy fell victim to intraparty fighting last year, making history twice during his short tenure as House speaker. Right out of the gate, it took him 15 rounds of voting to become speaker due to a few conservatives holding out against him until he made certain concessions.

McCarthy lost control of the caucus in June 2023, when a seemingly easy vote on a bill prohibiting the Biden administration from regulating gas stoves tanked because of 12 Republicans who were unhappy following the debt ceiling agreement. It made history as the first time a rules vote failed on the floor since 2002 under then-Speaker Dennis Hastert.

The trend continued in September 2023, when conservatives again tanked their own party’s defense spending bill as the fight between hard-line Republicans and McCarthy increased. It came after leadership had to pull the rule off the week before to avoid it failing.

This hasn’t slowed down under Johnson. He has been speaker for 113 days, and during that time, there have been six failed rule votes.

McCarthy made history yet again when he became the first House speaker to be removed, in part a ramification from a speakership concession that allowed one member of the House to bring up a motion to vacate, changing chamber rules. Eight Republicans, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), voted to vacate the speakership, setting the House up for a long round of voting last fall to find his replacement.

Four rounds of voting to replace McCarthy

After McCarthy was ousted as speaker, the chaos among Republicans did not end. There was a three-week vacancy in which Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) served as speaker pro tempore. It took four rounds of voting to elect Johnson.

Scalise was a nominee for about a day when he won a closed-door vote to become the Republicans’ nominee for speaker. However, he withdrew his bid on Oct. 12 after failing to sway holdouts before a floor vote. 

After Scalise dropped out of the race, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was tapped as the GOP speaker nominee. After three rounds of voting where he failed to get the necessary votes to win the speaker’s gavel, the House Republican Conference voted to move on from Jordan.

Following the end of Jordan and Scalise’s candidacies, nine House GOP members launched bids for the speakership. The conference selected Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) in a closed-door vote, but he withdrew his bid after it became evident he, too, could not secure the 217 majority votes needed on the floor.

Johnson became the Republican Party’s fourth nominee in two weeks following several closed-door votes. He won 220 votes and replaced McCarthy as the second speaker to preside over the 118th Congress.

The failure to gain a consensus on a Republican nominee was due to enough McCarthy allies voting for him to sink Jordan’s three bids. Other Republicans who did not support Jordan for speaker voted for 12 other people, including Emmer or Scalise.

Failure to whip votes on impeaching Mayorkas and Israel aid

House GOP leadership was dealt two embarrassing blows in one day last week when they failed to impeach Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and pass a stand-alone Israel foreign aid bill.

On Feb. 6, House Republicans failed to impeach Mayorkas, an effort that came on the back of months of hearings about the influx of immigrants at the southern border. It was one of two major investigations championed by the GOP, the other being an impeachment inquiry into Biden. However, leaders failed to whip enough votes, and the impeachment vote failed 214 to 216.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Minutes later, Johnson received another disappointment after the House failed to pass aid to Israel, with lawmakers on both sides voting against it. The bill was brought under suspension and, therefore, required a two-thirds vote or 287 votes to pass. Only 250 lawmakers voted in favor of the foreign aid bill.

If Johnson decides to take up the Senate’s foreign aid bill, the speaker will likely face the same uphill battle to whip enough votes in support of the legislation. The FISA renewal will also require some convincing of conservatives, and it has a time frame. Republicans have until April 19 to continue negotiations before FISA expires, an extension Johnson placed in the National Defense Authorization Act last year to buy time for more negotiations, much to the displeasure of hard-line Republicans.