Kevin McCarthy

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 represents , which encompasses most of the San Joaquin Valley. McCarthy served as the leader of the House Republican Conference from 2019 to 2023 and House Minority Leader from 2019 until his election as speaker in January 2023. Born in Bakersfield, California, McCarthy graduated from California State University, Bakersfield. He served as a member of the California State Assembly from 2002 to 2006, the same year he was first elected to the U.S. House. 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. He retained that position during Paul Ryan's speakership. In 2019, after Ryan retired, McCarthy was elected house minority leader. When Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election, McCarthy supported Donald Trump's debunked claims of voter fraud 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 slim majority. McCarthy was the House majority party nominee for speaker in January 2023, but did not win the speakership on the first ballot. He finally secured the office after days of successive votes and negotiations within his party on the 15th ballot. After a standoff between the McCarthy-led House Republican conference and the Biden administration, McCarthy and the Biden administration negotiated to resolve the 2023 debt-ceiling crisis and prevent what would have been 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. After McCarthy relied on Democrats to help pass a bipartisan continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown, Matt Gaetz filed a motion to vacate against McCarthy.