NC’s Dan Bishop helps keep Kevin McCarthy from quick ascent to House speaker
Whether Rep. Kevin McCarthy becomes House speaker is up in the air, but one member of North Carolina’s congressional delegation was working against him.
When Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican from Charlotte, cast his first vote Tuesday afternoon it wasn’t for McCarthy but for Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona.
Tuesday marked the first day of the 118th Congress. In the Senate, its members were sworn in promptly at noon. House members needed to wait until the election of a House speaker.
That didn’t happen Tuesday. The House adjourned without selecting a speaker with plans to return at noon Wednesday.
McCarthy, the Republican leader before the GOP took control of the House in the 2022 elections, was expected to get that job. But opposition from a number of Republicans, many in the House Freedom Caucus — a far-right group to which Bishop belongs — kept him from winning in the first three rounds of voting. If more than four Republicans persist in voting against McCarthy he would lose the speakership.
Nineteen, then 20, Republicans voted against McCarthy, including Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina.
Democrats voted for Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York.
Other than Bishop, all House Republicans from North Carolina backed McCarthy. In a second and third round of voting with no resolution in sight, Bishop voted for Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Bishop made it clear Tuesday morning that McCarthy shouldn’t expect his vote in a statement he posted to Twitter.
“Kevin McCarthy is not the right candidate to be speaker,” Bishop tweeted. “He has perpetuated the Washington status quo that makes this body one of the most unsuccessful and unpopular institutions in this country.”
“This isn’t about personality differences or who has earned the position,” Bishop said. “It’s about serving the American people.”
Bishop’s statement comes with little surprise. On Sunday, he was one of nine representatives who signed a letter critical of McCarthy and his potential election.
McCarthy’s opponents had made a series of demands that McCarthy answered over the weekend, but in the letter the nine Republicans said he didn’t leave them enough time to address deficiencies.
“At this stage, it cannot be a surprise that expressions of vague hopes reflected in far too many of the crucial points still under debate are insufficient,” the letter stated. “This is especially true with respect to Mr. McCarthy’s candidacy for speaker because the times call for radical departure from the status quo — not a continuation of past, and ongoing, Republican failures. For someone with a 14-year presence in senior House Republican leadership, Mr. McCarthy bears squarely the burden to correct the dysfunction he now explicitly admits across that long tenure.”
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This story was originally published January 3, 2023 at 1:45 PM.