Meet the most prominent ultraconservative GOP members blocking the California representative’s bid for the gavel
A group of about 20 hardline Republican have brought Washington to a standstill by torpedoing party favourite Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker of the US House of Representatives across successive rounds of voting this week.
The House cannot perform any of its vital functions – including overseeing national security, investigating government misconduct and passing legislation – until its presiding officer is in place.
The continued chaos has also exposed the sharp rifts that have developed within the Republican party.
Many in the group are members of the House freedom caucus, a collection of some of the most staunchly rightwing Republicans in the lower chamber of Congress.
Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry is the chair of the caucus. He played a key role in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election via the attempted installation of a new acting attorney general, according to the House committee that investigated the matter.
Perry is the only member of the group from above the Mason-Dixon line that traditionally separates the southern United States from the north.
The rest of the group is dominated by southerners – mainly from Texas, Florida or Arizona – and most represent districts that voted solidly for Trump in the 2020 election. Most were endorsed by the former president in last November’s midterms.
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