Andy Biggs, Eli Crane of Arizona among 8 GOP members to boot House speaker Kevin McCarthy

Arizona Republicans Andy Biggs and Eli Crane were among the eight GOP House members whose votes helped push out Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

The Arizonans backed a motion by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to remove McCarthy, as did all House Democrats.

Biggs and Crane had telegraphed their displeasure with McCarthy well in advance of Tuesday's historic vote to remove him from the House leadership role. They had voted “present” back in January when it required 15 rounds before Republicans had the votes to make him speaker.

The House voted 216-210 to “vacate” McCarthy’s seat. There was no clear successor.

Arizona Republican members Debbie Lesko, Paul Gosar, David Schweikert and Juan Ciscomani voted against removing McCarthy.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was named speaker pro tempore until a new speaker was chosen.

Biggs gave a floor speech Tuesday registering his dissatisfaction with the House proceedings this year under McCarthy, noting that despite the Republican majority, they have failed to negotiate any additional measures to address migrants coming over the border, including in his home state.

He said the House has been working on border security all year and McCarthy has been an ineffective leader in helping House Republicans achieve what they want to see at the border.

He also lamented that it’s been 25 consecutive years that the chamber has failed to pass the 12 required budget bills on time.

“This body is entrenched in a suboptimal path and refuses to leave it,” Biggs said of the House.

McCarthy's future as speaker was doomed over the weekend when he relied on Democratic votes to achieve a last-minute, short-term budget deal that prevented a partial U.S. government shutdown. Biggs and Crane said they would have welcomed a temporary shutdown if it would force lawmakers to cut government spending.

Biggs and Crane, along with three other Arizona House Republicans, all voted against the last-minute spending deal, but it passed anyhow.

Immediately after that breakthrough deal prevented a shutdown, Biggs and others questioned whether McCarthy should be removed.

Tuesday on the House floor, he also took the opportunity to badmouth the opposing party.

“This is a lawless Biden regime. They will not enforce border laws,” Biggs said before noting his vote to vacate McCarthy.

The only other time the House has taken such a vote was more than 100 years ago when Joseph Cannon, R-Ill., faced backlash when serving as a heavy-handed speaker of the House and chairman of the Rules Committee.

After a vote in 1910 to reduce his powers, the House voted on vacating his seat, and that vote failed.

McCarthy had a shot at keeping his job earlier in the day when the House voted on a motion to "table,"or suspend, the motion to remove McCarthy.

Republicans overwhelmingly voted in favor of the motion to table, while Democrats largely opposed it, with a final vote of 208-218.

Crane and Biggs were among the 11 Republicans voting against tabling the measure.

Ciscomani, who is in a far more competitive district than either Crane or Biggs, said on social media Tuesday he was not pleased with the day's theatrics.

"The chaos and grandstanding by a handful of members is a distraction to the progress House Republicans have made. I came to Congress to advocate for the people of #AZ06, not play political games. The American people deserve better," Ciscomani said.

In another post, he called the motion to remove McCarthy "pointless, unproductive and harmful to the agenda we put forth when we were elected."

Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo at ryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @UtilityReporter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Biggs, Crane of Arizona among 8 House Republicans to boot McCarthy