McCarthy's Pathway To Speaker's Gavel Not Straightforward

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the GOP nominee to become Speaker of the House of Representatives when Republicans take the House in January, is facing an increasingly complicated path to gaining the requisite 218 votes to take the gavel from outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

• McCarthy is reportedly facing dissent from both moderate and rightwing members of the Republican caucus.
• Politico: "We’re already hearing from a host of moderate House Republicans who won in Biden districts who are dreading the prospect of overly aggressive probes. It’s not what they ran on this election cycle — and certainly not what they want to be talking about after spending their campaigns focused on the economy."
• Tara Palmeri at Puck News says that Republican reps believe, "there’s a 50 percent chance that McCarthy becomes Speaker, but those odds seem to be dropping every day."
• Due to the razor thin majority in the House, McCarthy can only afford to drop four votes and maintain support to win leadership.
  • Four members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus, Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Bob Good (R-VA), and Matt Rosendale (R-MO) are on record as "hard noes."