The ambitious career of Kevin McCarthy, ousted GOP Speaker of the House

• Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, was elected Speaker of the House in January 2023.

• He held the seat less than a year before being ousted with support from members of his own party.

• Here's a look at his more than two decades in office and how his influence has faltered in the GOP.

Kevin McCarthy, a California congressman, is the House Republican who, after a contentious voting process, replaced Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House in the 2023 congressional session. On Tuesday, less than a year after taking the seat, he was ousted from the job.

His tumultuous bid to hold the Speaker's gavel was clinched after a record 15 ballots held in the House. His short-lived win came after five days of contentious voting, delayed by McCarthy critics including Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida — who later forced the vote which led to McCarthy's dismissal from the Speakership.

The last time a speaker election went to multiple votes was in 1923 when a Speaker of the House was elected after nine ballots. McCarthy is the first Speaker in American history to be removed from the seat.

Throughout his more than 20-year political career, the Bakersfield Republican developed a reputation for his ambition which, at times, made him a target within his own party. Here's a look at McCarthy's career, starting with his time in the California State Assembly to his years as a political influencer, and his recent ouster from the Speakership.

Representatives for McCarthy did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Kevin McCarthy's political career began before he was elected to the California State Assembly.

He worked in Rep. Bill Thomas's district office from 1987 to 2002, when he first won state office. The son of a Bakersfield assistant fire chief, McCarthy briefly ran a deli counter out of his aunt and uncle's frozen yogurt shop as a young adult but has worked in state or federal politics for his entire career.

McCarthy served as California State Assemblyman until 2007 and was Assembly Minority Leader from 2004-2006.

In 2006, he raised $1.15 million in campaign finances, according to OpenSecrets, slightly below the $1.36 million average raised by House members. In comparison, during the 2022 election, McCarthy raised $25.5 million — far above the $2.85 million average.

McCarthy ran for his House seat unopposed in 2008 and 2010.

Reflecting on his one-time student, Dr. Mohsen Attaran, professor of management at California State University, Bakersfield, who taught McCarthy in his BA and MA programs, told Insider, "He's at the same time an ambitious and compassionate individual."

He served as Majority Whip, the third-ranking House Republican from 2011 to 2014.

McCarthy's political influence began to grow quickly after winning his election as representative for California's 22nd Congressional District. He filled the seat left empty by the retirement of his former boss, Bill Thomas.

In his early years as a US Representative, McCarthy was one of three founding members of the GOP Young Guns Program.

McCarthy took a special interest in the initiative, which was intended to promote young Republicans among the National Republican Congressional Committee.

In 2012, McCarthy's congressional office was revealed to be one of the top spenders in Washington.

McCarthy's office spent the equivalent of two salaries — or $95,000 —on pastries and lunches, with an additional $4,000 being spent on bottled water, ABC reported. The next highest spender that year, Republican House Speaker John Boehner, spent a comparative $64,000.

In his fifth term, McCarthy was part of a group of mostly GOP leaders who sued the Obama administration.

Critics of the Obama administration, including McCarthy, sued over the president's use of executive action related to the Affordable Care Act's employer health insurance mandate.

He ran an unsuccessful bid for Speaker of the House in 2015.

Becoming more of a figurehead within the GOP, then-House Majority Leader McCarthy took a lead role in challenging the Obama administration's policy goals. McCarthy urged President Obama to sign legislation approving the expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline and called for a firmer response to Russian aggression in Ukraine.

McCarthy was among the first Republicans to express support for Donald Trump and endorsed him for the Republican primary in the 2016 presidential election.

McCarthy's alliance with Trump would persist through two impeachments. McCarthy, now a GOP figurehead, also vastly out-fundraised other House Republicans in 2016— raising $7.74 million in campaign finance contributions compared to the average $1.73 million, according to OpenSecrets.

In 2017, CalMatters reported "no politician has more clout with the Trump White House than [McCarthy] does."

McCarthy was called "Trump's closest ally in Congress," though The Washington Post reported McCarthy had been recorded saying "I think Putin pays" Trump the year before he was elected.

As House Majority Leader, McCarthy unified House Republicans in voting against Trump's first impeachment.

McCarthy vehemently opposed Trump's impeachment related to allegations the former president threatened to withhold aid from Ukraine in order to enlist the government in discrediting his political rival, Joe Biden.

McCarthy maintained his defense of the former president on numerous occasions.

CNN reported McCarthy said "there's nothing that the president did wrong" on his phone call with Zelenskyy. Politico reported he defended military expenditures at Trump's Scottish resort, saying, "It's just like any other hotel."

Following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, McCarthy privately lambasted the then-president.

Privately, McCarthy said he would call for Trump's resignation — while maintaining public support for him. Though their relationship was briefly questioned after recordings of McCarthy's criticism surfaced, Trump reaffirmed his belief in McCarthy's loyalty in 2021.

"Kevin McCarthy will sell his mother's soul in order to protect his own political career and to do whatever the former president tells him to do. And that's not okay," McCarthy's 2022 political challenger, Marisa Wood, told Insider.

Wood echoed concerns from within McCarthy's own party that his ambition had outweighed his morals.

"He's willing to sacrifice everything for his own political gain," Liz Cheney said of McCarthy in October 2022.

McCarthy announced his bid for Speaker of the House just as Trump announced his third presidential campaign.

McCarthy needed to win 218 votes to win the Speaker seat, though several Republicans publicly opposed him.

His tumultuous bid to hold the Speaker's gavel was clinched after a record 15 ballots held in the House.

A feud between Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and McCarthy began brewing during McCarthy's election to the Speakership in January 2023, which faced heavy resistance from Gaetz and other GOP critics of McCarthy's.

It took 15 painstaking votes for McCarthy to secure the Speaker's seat.

The last time a speaker election went to multiple votes was in 1923 when a Speaker of the House was elected after nine ballots.

In order to secure the Speakership, McCarthy changed House rules and made concessions that would ultimately lead to his ouster.

One of the concessions that McCarthy made with Gaetz and other fringe members of the GOP was to allow any sitting member to call a snap vote for a successor.

McCarthy's feud with Gaetz heated up over the course of the year.

The Florida Republican criticized McCarthy's leadership, saying the speaker was "out of compliance" with the agreements that he made with the outlying conservatives earlier this year.

Making good on a previous threat, Gaetz initiated the motion to remove McCarthy from the Speaker's seat October 3, 2023.

McCarthy has argued Gaetz's move was payback for Gaetz facing a House Committee inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct and misuse of funds.

McCarthy was removed from the Speaker's seat less than a year after taking the office.

For the first time in American history, the House of Representatives successfully moved to vacate the Office of the Speaker following Gaetz' motion.

The 216-210 vote included every present Democratic member of the House and eight Republicans — including Gaetz.

Editor's note: This story was first published in November 2022 and has been updated to reflect recent developments.

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