California Republican likely next House majority leader

WASHINGTON – California Republican Kevin McCarthy secured a clear shot to becoming House majority leader on Thursday as his sole rival dropped his bid in a leadership fight that exposed deep fissures within the GOP.

Barring an unforeseen challenge, McCarthy is on a glide path to the No. 2 job in the House behind Speaker John Boehner, with elections slated for June 19. Earlier in the day, backers of the four-term congressman had spoken confidently about his prospects.

Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, in a statement late Thursday, said he had decided to abandon the race after it “became obvious to me that the measures necessary to run a successful campaign would have created unnecessary and painful division within our party.”

Sessions, who serves as chairman of the House Rules Committee, has no plans to seek the No. 3 job of whip, said his spokeswoman, Torrie Miller. Three others are seeking that post.

Within 48 hours of Rep. Eric Cantor’s lightning primary-election downfall, McCarthy and his deputies aggressively rounded up votes with a pitch to Southern Republicans and pointed private conversations on the House floor.

Republicans sought to project an aura of unity but failed to quiet conservative complaints that such quick party elections after Cantor’s defeat gave them little time to rally around an alternative who better reflects the right’s ideology and the emboldened tea party.

The votes next Thursday for majority leader and whip might well not be the end of it. Several Republicans asserted that next week’s action won’t quiet ambitious lawmakers or factions in the GOP caucus, and leadership contests after November’s national midterm elections could produce a brand new lineup.

Cantor suffered a stunning defeat to little-known college professor Dave Brat in Tuesday’s Virginia Republican primary, a race that underscored the rift within the GOP between pragmatic, establishment conservatives and farther-right contenders pressing for no-compromise ideological stances.

Cantor is the first House majority leader to lose his seat by being defeated in a party primary election since the post was created in 1899, according to Eric Ostermeier, research associate at the University of Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance.

While the majority leader race narrowed to a single candidate, the contest to replace McCarthy as whip expanded with the addition of Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana.

Already seeking the post were Reps. Peter Roskam of Illinois, who has been chief deputy whip, and Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana. He is head of the Republican Study Committee, the organization representing conservative GOP lawmakers.