Allies of the booted speaker have identified their three biggest targets: Reps. Nancy Mace, Bob Good and Eli Crane.
Kevin McCarthy is not done trying to exact revenge on the fellow Republicans who ended his Hill career.
After a devastating ejection from the speakership that he spent 16 years pursuing, the California Republican and his allies are mobilizing to oust the eight GOP lawmakers who joined Democrats to depose him.
A top McCarthy ally, Brian O. Walsh, is overseeing an attempt to recruit primary challengers to take on members of the infamous “Gaetz Eight” — the Capitol’s nickname for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and seven Republicans who supported his fire-McCarthy push — according to six people familiar with the plans who were granted anonymity to discuss them.
The McCarthy revenge campaign is ready to marshal the former speaker’s considerable donor network on behalf of Republican primary candidates who are deemed strong enough to pose a credible threat to one of the eight.
“These traitors chose to side with Nancy Pelosi, AOC and over 200 Democrats to undermine the institution, their fellow Republicans and a duly elected Speaker,” Walsh said in a statement. “There must be consequences for that decision.”
Behind the scenes, McCarthy allies have identified three of the Gaetz Eight as the most vulnerable in primaries and thus, the ripest targets: Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Bob Good (R-Va.) and Eli Crane (R-Ariz.). Mace and Good already have strong challengers, but Crane still lacks a compelling prospective candidate to take him on.
That quiet work shows McCarthy’s appetite for payback remains intense, even months after his October ouster as speaker and December departure from Congress. It also illustrates that even out of office, the former speaker and his supporters can make life miserable for his detractors — a further sign that the House GOP power struggle between burn-it-down hardliners and more establishment conservatives is alive and well.
By Ally Mutnick and Olivia Beavers
