Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, is the first House speaker to be removed from office — due to a vote Tuesday afternoon that divided Orange County’s congressional delegation along party lines.
Democratic Reps. Lou Correa of Anaheim, Mike Levin of San Juan Capistrano, Katie Porter of Irvine and Linda Sánchez of Whittier all voted for the motion to oust McCarthy, an effort brought by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. They joined the rest of the House Democrats in voting for the removal.
Reps. Young Kim and Michelle Steel sided with a majority of their Republican colleagues in an attempt to keep McCarthy in office.
The final vote was 216 in favor of removing McCarthy and 210 in opposition. Eight Republicans voted for the ouster.
Gaetz, a far-right Republican from Florida has for months threatened to use a procedural tool — called a motion to vacate — to strip McCarthy of his office. Those threats escalated over the weekend after McCarthy relied on Democrats to provide the necessary votes to stop a government shutdown.
A motion to vacate is a rare and strong procedural tool that has only been used twice in the past century against Republican speakers. No speaker in history has ever been forced to vacate the speaker’s chair — until now.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi did not vote on Tuesday because she is in San Francisco for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s funeral this week. Her spokesperson, on the social media platform X formerly called Twitter, said Pelosi is “very saddened not to be there for this historic vote.”
McCarthy was elected House Speaker in January following a historic post-midnight 15th ballot, the most a speaker’s vote dragged through since the Civil War era.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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