Kevin McCarthy's departure leaves GOP with a massive problem: report

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) lost the speakership earlier this year when eight Republicans joined with all House Democrats to vacate his chair, and this week he announced he would be leaving Congress entirely at the end of the year.

According to a new report from Politico about McCarthy's home district, his supporters aren't shocked about the sudden resignation, leaving the GOP with an even smaller margin than McCarthy managed through most of 2023.

"He’s the hometown boy who made good, but then he had a tragic end,” Bakersfield City Council member Mark Salvaggio told the site. “The reaction here locally is sadness, disappointment … but people understand. They respect his decision.”

McCarthy's real skill is raising money to help his fellow members, though it's unclear if that's what he'll do once he leaves. It puts the Republican House Caucus at another disadvantage, losing their strongest fundraiser.

“It’s going to be hard for them to replicate the operation that Kevin had,” said top GOP operative Rob Stutzman said from California, who has known McCarthy since the early days of the statehouse. “They won’t be able to. [Rep. Mike] Johnson doesn’t have the relationships and fundraising prowess.”

The money issue is a big one, the New York Times wrote Thursday. New Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) isn't a fundraiser, and he never has been, even for his own campaigns. Now, he must raise enough cash to help save the endangered 18 Republicans sitting in districts won by Joe Biden in 2020.

Punchbowl's Jake Sherman suggested that McCarthy could start a super PAC and raise money to go after Republicans who voted to get rid of him. It wouldn't necessarily be a form of payback, but instead a cleansing of the troublemakers who continue to hold the party hostage.

"He's going to make a lot of money — is what he really wants to do," Sherman told MSNBC on Thursday. "McCarthy has been in public office for 20 years, and I think he's going to dive head first into the private sector. The interesting thing to me is McCarthy now is not a federal official, he could go out and raise unlimited sums of money."

"He could run an operation to elect Republicans or get Republicans out of Congress," Sherman continued. "I think he'll remain politically active when it comes to the House, but I don't think he's going to be as politically active as he thinks. I think he's going to be in a new world, a new role, and I think he thinks now he's going to miss Congress and miss the camaraderie and the job. I honestly don't think he will as much as he thinks he will."

The impending shutdown over the National Defense funding reauthorization is quickly approaching with an even slimmer majority for the GOP without McCarthy and disgraced former Rep. George Santos (R-NY).

The Times also mentioned that there's another concern when it comes to additional retirements at the end of the year.

"If even a handful more House Republicans leave in the coming months, it could wipe away their majority before a single vote is cast in the 2024 election," the report said. "Another Republican, Representative Bill Johnson of Ohio, has announced that he will leave Congress in several months to become the president of Youngstown State University, though he has not said precisely when."