Sherrill: Why back Kevin McCarthy 'when he's given up the store' to the hard right?

William Westhoven, Morristown Daily Record
·2 min read
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As Republicans in Washington continued trying to choose their speaker, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-Montclair, chatted online with reporters about the historic conflict on the House floor and her own goals for the 118th conference.

Make that representative-elect Sherrill.

"I'll have to check with the Parliamentarian but I suspect I'm still a Congresswoman-elect because I haven't been sworn in yet," said Sherrill, who won a third term to represent New Jersey's 11th District in November. "We need to elect a speaker and pass the rules."

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) at a press conference with legislators and law-enforcement officials in Madison to announce she introduced a bill in Congress to fund new efforts to stop the rising rate of vehicle thefts in New Jersey and elsewhere.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) at a press conference with legislators and law-enforcement officials in Madison to announce she introduced a bill in Congress to fund new efforts to stop the rising rate of vehicle thefts in New Jersey and elsewhere.

Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Kevin McCarthy lost a fourth vote to be installed as speaker of the House, thwarted by a coalition of hard-right Republicans who have consistently voted against him.

"Things are in a little bit of disarray here," she said. "But that's OK. I have four kids so I enjoy bringing order to chaos. So I should do quite well in this Congress, from what I've seen so far."

Asked if Democrats could be enlisted through negotiations to back McCarthy, Sherrill said her party would be "amenable" to discussions, "but that has to be generated by the Republicans."

"They have to understand what they are willing to do," Sherrill said. "But he's already given up the store to the right wing. So why would we make him speaker when he's already given into that list of demands to the right?"

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) at a press conference with legislators and law-enforcement officials in Madison to announce she introduced a bill in Congress to fund new efforts to stop the rising rate of vehicle thefts in New Jersey and elsewhere.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) at a press conference with legislators and law-enforcement officials in Madison to announce she introduced a bill in Congress to fund new efforts to stop the rising rate of vehicle thefts in New Jersey and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Sherrill said "great" legislation passed by the previous Democrat-controlled Congress provided funding for critical New Jersey-centric projects like the Gateway Tunnel and $2 billion to support national defense manufacturing in the state, as well as funds for research and development innovation at NJIT and Stevens Institute of Technology. Those initiatives are already in gear, she said.

Her bill to combat the rising wave of auto theft in the Garden State stalled last year - "we just ran out of runway, floor time on the Senate is very limited" - but she hopes it will pass in the near future.

"I think this is something both sides can get behind," she said. "I think we can build a coalition. I think there is a lot of opportunity here."

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Mikie Sherrill weighs in on Kevin McCarthy and NJ issues