Kevin Owen McCarthy (born January 26, 1965) is an American politician who served as the 55th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from January to October 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California's 22nd congressional district from 2007 to 2013, followed by California's 23rd congressional district from 2013 to 2023, and finally California's 20th congressional district in 2023 before resigning from the House of Representatives the same year.
Born and raised in Bakersfield, California, McCarthy graduated from the Bakersfield campus of California State University. He served two terms as a member of the California State Assembly before being elected to the U.S. House in 2006. McCarthy served as the House Republican chief deputy whip from 2009 to 2011 and as House majority whip from 2011 to 2014. After House majority leader Eric Cantor's reelection loss in the 2014 Republican primary, McCarthy was elected majority leader under Speaker John Boehner, a position he retained during Paul Ryan's speakership. In 2019, after Ryan retired, McCarthy was elected House Minority Leader.
As Minority Leader, McCarthy supported Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud after Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election and initially participated in efforts to overturn the results. After the U.S. Capitol was stormed during the 2021 electoral vote count, McCarthy reversed his previous comments on voter fraud in the election and blamed Trump for the riot. By 2022, he had publicly reconciled with Trump. McCarthy led the House Republicans through the 2022 elections, in which they gained a slimmer-than-expected majority.
McCarthy was the Republican nominee for speaker in January 2023 but did not win the speakership on the first attempt, securing the office only after days of successive votes on a historic 15 different ballots as well as negotiations within his own party. During his tenure as speaker, very few bills were passed into law compared to preceding modern congresses.
As speaker, McCarthy dealt with a standoff between the House Republican conference and Biden administration that led to the 2023 debt-ceiling crisis that nearly culminated in a first-ever national default. To resolve the crisis, the parties negotiated the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which passed with bipartisan support in Congress before Biden signed it into law. In September 2023, McCarthy relied on Democrats to help pass a bipartisan continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown. As a result, Republican congressman Matt Gaetz filed a motion to vacate the speakership against McCarthy.
Following a largely unprecedented House floor debate between members of the majority party, McCarthy was voted out as speaker on October 3, 2023. He was succeeded by Mike Johnson as speaker. His tenure was the third-shortest for a speaker of the House in United States history, and he became the first speaker to ever be removed from the role during a legislative session. McCarthy resigned as a member of the House at the end of 2023.
Early life and education McCarthy was born on January 26, 1965, in Bakersfield, California. He is the son of Owen McCarthy an assistant city fire chief, and Roberta Darlene (née Palladino), a homemaker. McCarthy is a fourth-generation resident of Kern County. His maternal grandfather was an Italian immigrant. McCarthy is the first Republican in his immediate family, as his parents were members of the Democratic Party. He attended Bakersfield High School, where he played on the football team, from 1979 to 1983.
In 1984, at age 19, McCarthy ran his first business selling sandwiches out of the back of his uncle's yogurt shop on Stine Road. He was able to finance this business after winning $5,000 in the California State Lottery and subsequently investing these winnings in the stock market.
McCarthy attended California State University, Bakersfield, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in marketing in 1989 and a Master of Business Administration in 1994. During college, he worked as a seasonal firefighter for the Kern County Fire Department.
Early political career McCarthy served on the staff of Congressman Bill Thomas from 1987 to 2002. He chaired the California Young Republicans in 1995 and the Young Republican National Federation from 1999 to 2001. From the late 1990s until 2000, he was Thomas's district director. McCarthy won his first election in 2000, as a Kern Community College District trustee. However, Thomas has since criticized McCarthy in numerous interviews.
McCarthy was elected to the California State Assembly in 2002 and became the Republican floor leader in 2003. In 2006, McCarthy was first elected to the United States House of Representatives as a representative for California's 22nd district. He succeeded his former boss, Bill Thomas, who retired. The district was renumbered as the 23rd district in 2013, and again as the 20th district in 2023.
U.S. House of Representatives Committee assignments Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
Caucus memberships Congressional Western Caucus
Party leadership House Republican steering committee House Republican Chief Deputy Whip, 2009–2011 House Majority Whip, 2011–2014 House Majority Leader, 2014–2019 House Minority Leader, 2019–2023 Speaker of the House, January to October 2023
Early leadership posts As a freshman congressman, McCarthy was appointed to the Republican Steering committee. Republican leader John Boehner appointed him chair of the Republican platform committee during the committee's meetings in Minneapolis in August 2008, which produced the Republican Party Platform for 2008. He was also one of the three founding members of the GOP Young Guns Program. After the 2008 elections, he was chosen as chief deputy minority whip, the highest-ranking appointed position in the House Republican Conference. His predecessor, Eric Cantor, was named minority whip. McCarthy helped recruit candidates associated with the Tea Party movement in the 2010 U.S. House elections.
House majority whip On November 17, 2010, the House Republican Conference selected McCarthy to be the House majority whip in the 112th Congress. In this post, he was the third-ranking House Republican, behind Speaker John Boehner and majority leader Eric Cantor.
In August 2011, McCarthy and Cantor led a group of 30 Republican members of Congress to Israel, where some members took part in a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee, including one member—Kevin Yoder—who swam nude.Dana Bash & Deirdre Walsh, GOP lawmakers reprimanded after swim in Sea of Galilee , CNN (August 20, 2012). When McCarthy and Cantor later found out about the swim, they were "furious" and worried about negative news coverage, and "called a members-only meeting the next morning to reprimand the group—both those who swam and those who abstained".
In 2012, McCarthy's office reported spending $99,000 on pastries, bottled water, and other food items, making him the highest-spending member of the House in this category.
House majority leader Cantor lost the June 2014 primary for his seat in Congress and announced he would step down from House leadership at the end of July. McCarthy sought to succeed Cantor, and, after some speculation that Pete Sessions and Jeb Hensarling would challenge him, both dropped out, leaving McCarthy a clear path to become majority leader. On June 13, representative Raul Labrador announced he would also seek the leadership position. On June 19, the Republican Conference elected McCarthy majority leader.
According to the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs, McCarthy is the least-tenured majority leader in the history of the House of Representatives. When he assumed the position in July 2014, he had served only seven years, six months and 29 days, the least experience of any floor leader in the House's history by more than a year.
McCarthy kept four of his predecessor's staff members on his staff when he took over as majority leader, including deputy chief of staff Neil Bradley, who now has served in that role for three majority leaders.
McCarthy has been under fire for avoiding meetings and town-hall events with constituents in his congressional district for years.Carol Ferguson, Voters call for town hall meeting with Rep. McCarthy , KBAK/KBFX (February 21, 2017).Chloe Nordquist, Protesters gather outside hotel where Congressman Kevin McCarthy was set to speak at a GOP dinner , (February 21, 2017).Steven Meyer, McCarthy, Nunes come under fire for attending fundraiser, not town halls , The Sacramento Bee (February 21, 2017). His last town hall was in June 2010. He has opted for screened telephone calls since.
In December 2017, McCarthy voted for the House Republican tax legislation. After the vote, he asked his constituents to "Come February, check your check, because that will be the pay raise of the vote for Donald Trump."
An October 2018 investigation documented how William "Bill" Wages, of McCarthy's brother-in-law's company Vortex Construction, has received $7.6 million since 2000 in no-bid and other prime federal contracts as a minority business (a claim that has been disputed). The work was mostly for construction projects at the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in McCarthy's Bakersfield-based district, and Naval Air Station Lemoore in California's Kings County.
Unsuccessful 2015 candidacy for speaker of the House
On September 25, 2015, John Boehner decided to resign as speaker effective October 30, 2015. Many media outlets speculated that McCarthy would likely replace him, and Boehner himself said that McCarthy "would make an excellent speaker". On September 28, McCarthy formally announced his candidacy. Having held congressional office for less than nine years, McCarthy would have been the speaker with the least time in Congress since 1891.Kevin McCarthy would be the least experienced House Speaker since 1891 , Washington Post, Phillip Bump, September 28, 2015. Retrieved October 4, 2015.
In a September 29, 2015, interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity, McCarthy was asked what Republicans had accomplished in Congress. He replied by talking about the House of Representatives' special panel investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attack (in which Islamic militants attacked the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya). Republicans said the purpose of the government-funded committee was purely to investigate the deaths of four Americans. But McCarthy said, "Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought." The comment was seen as an admission that the investigation was a partisan political undertaking rather than a substantive inquiry. Some commentators described his remark as a classic "Kinsley gaffe" (defined as when a politician accidentally tells the truth). The remark was also described as "saying the quiet part loud".Elizabeth Williamson, 'Where Is Kevin?' McCarthy Finds a Place in the Trump Camp , The New York Times (January 22, 2020). Several days later, McCarthy apologized for the remarks and said the Benghazi panel was not a political initiative.