House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy won't get enough votes to become the next House speaker, Rep. Andy Biggs, who is also vying for the spot, told Newsmax on Friday.
"It just takes three members of the Republican conference to say no to Kevin," the Arizona Republican told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "To get there, you need 218. That's kind of the magic number. I don't think he's going to get the 218."
But Biggs said that if other members also don't pick him for the coveted seat, then the Republican conference needs to have a consensus candidate who will "decentralize authority and power away from leadership and put it back into the committee process," which would "allow members to legislate as legislators."
With McCarthy in charge, that may not happen, said Biggs.
"We offered him up some rules that we thought would be interesting, literally a couple of months ago," the congressman said.
The changes included decentralizing power so a "majority of the majority" would be needed to bring a bill onto the floor.
"The committee process would be strengthened, reinvigorated," said Biggs. "You would allow members to have a say in determining who their leadership was, even in the committees."
Other options, he said were just "normal good-housekeeping" measures, such as eliminating the House "martial law" rule, so members will have at least 72 hours to read all legislation.
But even with Republicans holding a slim margin in the House, Biggs said that does not open the door for Democrats, said Biggs.
"We still have the majority, and you can put together a coalition within the Republican Party for a consensus candidate," he said. "For instance, I work very well with many of my more liberal members of our conference. We know what they want, and they can know what we want, and basically, we could probably give you 10 or 15 items right now that we would agree on as a conference."
Meanwhile, Biggs said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's announcement Thursday that she will not be seeking further leadership roles in the House makes him feel "hopeful and optimistic."
"I think you're going to see younger, very-skilled Democrats come to the leadership front," he said. "Some of those I've watched and I suspect, somebody like a Hakeem Jeffries, who is very talented and very smart, is going to come and go forward for them. There are a bunch there [who] are very hard left, but they're very talented."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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