WASHINGTON – Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) launched an insurgent campaign for House Speaker Sunday, insisting he’s the “fresh face” needed to bridge GOP turmoil in the House.
“Today, here, I am announcing my intention to run for Speaker of the House of Representatives,” Chaffetz said on Fox News Sunday.
The longshot pitch kicked off the first serious challenge to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy who was Speaker John Boehner’s right hand man.
“I think the American public wants to see a change. They want a fresh start,” Chaffetz said.
“You don’t just give an automatic promotion to the existing leadership team. That doesn’t signal change.”
Boehner is resigning Oct. 30 following uprising from the House’s most conservative members frustrated he hasn’t done enough to challenge President Obama. Chaffetz said “nearly 50” of those conservative members won’t support McCarthy and have recruited Chaffetz to “bridge the divide” between the factions of the GOP.
McCarthy, a likable Californian who helped build the GOP ranks, has the majority of the support from the Republican caucus. But Chaffetz predicted the House’s No. 2 can’t get the required 218 votes on the floor because too many of the 247 Republicans won’t back an extension of the current leadership.
“There’s really a math problem,” Chaffetz said. “… He’s going to fall short of the 218 votes on the floor of the House.”
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) predicted Sunday more Republicans will now follow Chaffetz’s lead to challenge McCarthy. “You might have another one or two that step in the race,” Blackburn told CNN’s State of the Union. “(But) I do think McCarthy has the votes.”
Republicans will huddle Oct. 8 to decide their nominee for speaker. Then the full house will take a public vote.
Chaffetz, 48, is a fourth-term representative and chairman of the high-profile House Oversight Committee where he’s taken on Planned Parenthood, the Secret Service and federal data breeches.
McCarthy stepped into trouble last week when he gave Democrats ammunition that the House Benghazi Committee was formed as a political vehicle to discredit Hillary Clinton.
“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened, had we not fought and made that happen,” McCarthy told Fox News.
Boehner Thursday was forced to walk back McCarthy’s comments: “This investigation has never been about former Secretary of State Clinton and never will be.”