Texas Rep. Chip Roy wields power as GOP conference secures House speaker options

WASHINGTON — House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy is having a tough battle getting the votes he needs to become speaker of the House when Republicans gain the majority in the new session, and Texas Rep. Chip Roy is making it tougher.

Roy, R-Hays County, who wants major changes to the way the House operates, last month nominated Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a rival to McCarthy, for speaker, and is now at the center of a small group of conservative hardliners who last week laid out a list of demands to win their support.

“I want to see this place change,” Roy told the American-Statesman. “We’re pushing for a lot of changes.”

Roy said he is not — at least for now — in the “never Kevin” McCarthy camp of a handful of members from the Freedom Caucus who say they won’t vote for the GOP House leader. But Roy cautioned he also isn’t in the “OK” camp, either. (Some McCarthy supporters last week started wearing “Only Kevin” campaign-style buttons.)

“No one has 218 votes,” Roy said of the number needed to be elected speaker if all 435 House members vote. McCarthy, R-Calif., can afford to lose only four GOP votes with the House breakdown of 222 Republicans and 213 Democrats come January.

Democrats, who will be in the minority, are expected to be in lockstep to vote for newly elected leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., as speaker.

McCarthy’s precarious path to the speakership has roiled Republicans, with the House GOP leader meeting frequently with Roy and others who are opposed to him or uncommitted over issues such as the ability of one member “to vacate the chair” or call for a vote to remove the speaker, procedural rules that allow for more scrutiny of legislation, and committee assignments that favor far right conservatives.

“We’re continuing to have conversations,” Roy said.

The turmoil has taken over many aspects of House activity, and McCarthy has delayed naming committee chairmanships, which was expected in early December, to possibly until after Jan. 3 when the new session begins. The GOP leader has an outsized role in picking chairs and might be able to leverage his preferences to get support from House members.

The delay affects two Texans in contested races: Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, who is seeking the chairmanship for the House Homeland Security Committee, and Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, who wants to chair the House Budget Committee.

Three Texans, who are unopposed, are expected to secure chairmanships: Michael McCaul, R-Austin, in the Foreign Affairs Committee; Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, in the Appropriations Committee; and Roger Williams, R-Austin, in the Small Business Committee.

Roy, first elected in 2018, is playing a significant role in trying to get a different operational style in the House. He nominated a challenger to McCarthy — Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. — in November when the GOP conference picked the GOP House leader as the candidate for speaker by a 188-31 vote.

Biggs announced in early December that he will still be a candidate when the vote takes place on the House floor, but Roy has not said whether he will vote for him. And there are still many possible scenarios that could play out in the race for speaker, including a compromise candidate or even someone who doesn’t serve in the House. (Constitutional experts have said the founding document doesn’t specify that the speaker has to be a House member.)

McCarthy allies were so worried about the vote count for speaker after the midterm elections that some even approached U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a conservative Democrat from Laredo, about switching parties. Asked by reporters what he was offered as an incentive, Cuellar, who would not identify the individuals, said he was told, “Name your price.”

Cuellar, who had strong support from Democratic leadership in his hard-fought primary against a progressive Latina, said his answer was, “No, thank you."

Former President Donald Trump, whose name has been floated by some of his supporters as a possible yet remote candidate for speaker, is supporting McCarthy. In a sign of how close the race is, Trump has been lobbying House members to vote for McCarthy, according to The New York Times.

Roy, however, is leveraging his vote to see whether McCarthy will make the changes he wants.

“This isn't the first time Congressman Roy has bucked the leadership or the majority of the GOP caucus, and I doubt it will be the last,” said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas. “He is symptomatic of the problem Congressman McCarthy has with members whose political orientation and ideological brand differs from McCarthy's more expedient approach.”

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Texas reporters Thursday that the push from the right wing was very similar to what happened to former House Speakers John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who both had to try to manage constant dissent from ultraconservative members.

“The Freedom Caucus feels empowered in negotiating the way the House operates,” he said. “Speaker McCarthy will have figured that out.

“It’s Kevin McCarthy’s game to win. He can’t afford to lose.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Race for House speaker: Rep. Chip Roy on fence about Kevin McCarthy