Former Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, who will go down in history as the only Speaker ever impeached, announced Wednesday that he would leave Congress in the coming weeks.
“I have decided to leave the House at the end of this year to serve America in another way. I know that my work has only just begun,” he wrote in a published column in the Wall Street Journalin which he defends his record in the corridors of power.
His departure will further shrink the narrow Republican majority in the House, after the expulsion of his party member George Santos last week.
“I will continue to recruit the best and brightest in our country to run for office. The Republican Party grows bigger every day, and I am committed to using my experience to serve the next generation of leaders,” added McCarthy, who was elected to Congress 17 years ago.
The end of moderate elected officials
“To all those who have supported me over the years (…), thank you from the bottom of my heart. We have done our part of the job. And when the stakes were highest, we rose to the challenge. We were ready to risk everything (…), whatever the personal cost. To put it simply, we did the right thing,” he said in a video on X (formerly Twitter).
In October, the fall from the perch of McCarthy, 58, was orchestrated by the Trumpist fringe of his own camp. The members of this clan had already done everything to prevent him from becoming Speaker nine months ago. The elected official from California had fought for 15 rounds, and swallowed more than one snake, to finally be elected to the post.
A few days ago, it was McCarthy’s former lieutenant, Patrick McHenry, who announced that he would not run again next year. Unlike the Senate, which favors the victory of relatively moderate elected officials – who must appeal to the electorate of an entire state, and not a tailor-made constituency – the House is increasingly polarized, which makes any compromise on the budget or aid to Ukraine particularly complex.