GOP's 'candidate catastrophes' in 2022 have come back to haunt Kevin McCarthy: elections analyst

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is on the verge of being thrown overboard by some members of his own party, and Cook Political elections analyst Dave Wasserman thinks the seeds for McCarthy's political demise were actually sewn around 11 months ago.

Writing on Twitter, Wasserman reminds his followers of several MAGA-backed candidates in 2022 who lost what appeared to be very winnable races and ensured that the GOP only won with a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives.

"McCarthy/House Rs might not be in this crisis had they avoided candidate catastrophes in a few more seats in '22," he writes.

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Included among Wasserman's list of disastrous 2022 candidates are former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who lost to Rep. Mary Peltola by 10 points despite having the backing of former President Donald Trump; J.R. Majewski, a one-time proponent of QAnon who got crushed by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH); and Joe Kent, a Trump-backed candidate who gave an interview to Nazi sympathizer Greyson Arnold and even made an appearance on the podcast of infamous white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

With such a small majority, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) only needs four other Republicans and all Democrats to join him in voting to oust McCarthy -- and so far no swing-district Democrats have shown any desire to help McCarthy out.