1965-present
Kevin McCarthy News: Retiring from the House Later This Month
Two months after being ousted from his short-term House Speakership, California Representative Kevin McCarthy announced he will retire from his national office at the end of December. The 58-year-old shared the news in a Wall Street Journal opinion article published December 6.
“I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways,” he wrote. “I will continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office. The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders.” He later added that innovation, not legislation, is more likely to resolve current societal challenges.
Who Is Kevin McCarthy?
Congressman Kevin McCarthy served as House speaker from January to October 2023. Beginning his political career in 1987 as a congressional intern, McCarthy parlayed his working-class values from the California Assembly to the U.S. House of Representatives, to which he was elected in 2006. As House speaker, McCarthy worked with the Biden administration to resolve the 2023 debt crisis and avoid a first-ever national default. However, the House voted to remove McCarthy’s title in October after he helped pass a last-minute spending bill to avoid a government shutdown days prior. McCarthy is a fierce defender of Donald Trump, and his role in the probes of the former president are under scrutiny.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Kevin Owen McCarthy
BORN: January 26, 1965
BIRTHPLACE: Bakersfield, California
SPOUSE: Judy Wages McCarthy (1992-present)
CHILDREN: Connor and Meghan
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius
Early Life and Education
The youngest of three children, Kevin Owen McCarthy was born on January 26, 1965, in Bakersfield, California. His parents are Owen McCarthy Jr., an assistant fire chief in the Bakersfield Fire Department, and Roberta McCarthy, a homemaker. Kevin’s Bakersfield roots extend back three generations. His great-grandfather Jeremiah McCarthy, who emigrated from Ireland, was a cattle rancher in Kern County. Kevin attended Bakersfield High School, where he played tight end on the football team.
After high school, McCarthy enrolled in Bakersfield Community College but dropped out a year later. After a $5,000 lottery win in 1984, 19-year-old McCarthy used the money to open a deli, Kevin O’s Delicatessen, in the corner of his uncle’s frozen yogurt shop. In 1987, he sold the deli and used the proceeds to continue his education, enrolling at University of California-Bakersfield where he earned an undergraduate business degree in 1989 and a master’s degree in business administration in 1994.
Entering Politics
McCarthy’s interest in politics began in 1987 when he interned with his local congressman, Bill Thomas, a Republican U.S. House representative from 1979 to 2007. McCarthy eventually became a member of Thomas’ staff, a position that he held for 15 years. McCarthy also served as chair of the California Young Republicans club in the 1990s, and from 1999 to 2001, he chaired the Young Republican National Federation.
McCarthy’s first elected office was as a member of the Kern County Community College District Board of Trustees in 2000. In 2002, he was elected to the California Assembly and, at age 38, became its Republican minority leader. In 2006, upon Thomas’ retirement, McCarthy was elected to his mentor’s seat in the U.S. House.
U.S. House of Representatives
Touting his working-class background and the small-business experience he gained running his deli, McCarthy believes in enabling individuals to attain the American Dream through hard work, reducing government regulations, and cutting government spending and taxes. He has served on several committees during his tenure in the House, including Ways and Means, Oversight and Accountability, and Judiciary, where he has sponsored or supported legislation that aligns with his platform.
McCarthy’s rise in Washington has been rapid. After just two years, he was appointed chief deputy whip. Six years later, in 2014, he was elected House majority leader. By 2015, McCarthy appeared to be in line for the House speaker position. That September, the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, a group of Republican and former Tea Party members formed earlier that year, was responsible for the resignation of Speaker of the House John Boehner, who they felt withheld committee assignments from their members. (Boehner retired from Congress the following month.) Ultimately, McCarthy couldn’t get the votes and withdrew from consideration.
Following the Republican party’s loss in the 2018 midterm elections, McCarthy was elected minority leader, succeeding House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Speaker of the House and Removal
When Republicans regained the majority in the House of Representatives in January 2023, a battle for House speaker ensued. Over several days in a series of contentious rounds of voting–15 in total and the most in 164 years—McCarthy was elected Speaker of the House on January 7. To secure the role, he made serious concessions to the far-right wing of the Republican party, a sign that maintaining control of his party and their majority in the House would be challenging.
However, during his first major test of leadership, McCarthy proved able to strike a deal with Democrats to avoid a U.S. debt default crisis. The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 was passed by the House on May 31 and the Senate on June 1. Ultimately, 102 Republicans voted against the bill, including members of the Freedom Caucus, because they were angry that McCarthy didn’t push for steeper budget cuts. On June 3, President Biden signed the bill into law, ending the crisis and calling the negotiations a bipartisan success.
On September 30, 2023, McCarthy helped Congress pass a last-minute bill to avoid a government shutdown. While the measure was approved by nearly all Democrats, it proved much more polarizing to McCarthy’s Republican colleagues, with 90 voting against its passage. In response, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz introduced a motion to remove McCarthy from the speakership two days later, citing his handling of spending and budget disputes. The House was required to vote on whether to “table” the motion within two days but opted to push it forward.
In the ensuing vote, the House decided to remove McCarthy’s title by a 216-210 margin with eight Republicans and all Democrats voting for removal. He is the first person to have been stripped of the speakership in American history.
Relationship with Donald Trump
In his position as a Republican leader in Congress, McCarthy defended President Donald Trump during the lead-up to his first impeachment over pressuring Ukraine to investigate his 2020 presidential opponent Joe Biden. He sent a letter to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi questioning the integrity of the impeachment inquiry. His plea fell on deaf ears, but the Senate acquitted Trump in February 2020.
On January 13, 2021, just one week before his term expired, Trump was impeached a second time, on a single count: inciting an insurrection. Privately, McCarthy denounced Trump and his involvement in the January 6 Capitol attack. In an audio recording of a conversation with a group of Republican leaders McCarthy said, “I’ve had it with this guy.” Publicly, McCarthy avoided confronting Trump, fearing retribution not only from the voting bloc that elected Trump, but also many other Republicans.
In May 2022, the January 6 House Committee subpoenaed McCarthy to learn more about his communications with Trump before and during the Capitol insurrection, however, he defied the subpoena. As Justice Department investigations into Trump’s involvement in the January 6 attack and alleged election interference in Georgia and other states continue, it’s unclear if McCarthy is involved in any of the probes. He has promised congressional investigations of any federal prosecution of the former President.
Wife and Book
In 1992, McCarthy wed his high school sweetheart, Judy Wages, whom he met in his sophomore science class. They live in Bakersfield, California, in the first home they purchased together. The couple have two children, Connor and Meghan.
McCarthy, along with Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor, authored Young Guns, A New Generation of Conservative Leaders, which Simon & Schuster released in September 2010. In the book, they discuss their agenda for moving the Republic party forward.
Quotes
- You know, my father always told me, “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
- I completely condemn the violence at the Capitol. What we are watching unfold is un-American. I am disappointed, I’m sad, this is not what our country should look like, this is not who we are. This is not the first amendment.
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Kimberly Manning is a writer and communications professional with a passion for storytelling. Life artists and underdogs inspire her. Kim published her first piece, an essay on women’s empowerment, at age 9. An avid reader and fiber enthusiast, when not thinking of her next knitting project, you’ll likely find her hiking in the outdoors.
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