Kevin McCarthy Says Future Of His Speakership Hinges On GOP Victories In California

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has suggested that his role as speaker of the House may depend on the GOP’s success in California ahead of the 2024 midterm elections.

During a press conference call about the Republican National Committee’s new “Bank Your Vote” strategy for the state, McCarthy noted that he currently holds a four-seat majority over the House Republican Conference, and that maintaining those seats would be key to retaining Republican control of the House after gaining new members from California in 2022.

“Is my future as Speaker dependent on holding the five seats we picked up in California? Yeah. We have our entire majority because we won in California. We picked up those House seats over two cycles,” McCarthy said.

He added that the gains were primarily due to Republicans’ fielding candidates from minority communities, saying “We’ve elected more women as Republicans … Hispanics as Republicans … [and] black Republicans.”

“When you look at a seat like Duarte’s or Valadao’s, Biden carried it by 11 and 13 percent,” McCarthy noted, noting Republicans’ efforts to defend seats where President Joe Biden carried a majority of votes in the 2020 election.

“We also have seats that Democrats sit in which Trump carried, and we’re going to Bank Votes in those seats, too … Presidential elections change our turnout.”

The RNC has recently implemented a strategy known as the “Bank Your Vote” plan, which focuses on activities such as absentee voting, ballot harvesting, and poll watching.

This is in response to recent survey results that appear to be unfavorable for Democrats and President Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 campaign cycle.

McCarthy highlighted Republican Rep. Mike Garcia of California’s 27th district, saying, “Mike Garcia won in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which no Republican had done since 1994 … [These seats] give Republicans a majority but are also very embarrassing to the Democrats.”

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has initiated the “Bank Your Vote” strategy in preparation for the 2024 election, which includes activities such as encouraging absentee voting, harvesting ballots, and poll watching.

This comes at a time when a recent survey shows troubling news for Democrats and President Joe Biden as they begin to look ahead to 2024.

The Newsweek tracker poll revealed that Democratic-favored issues like abortion and the environment are far from being the highest priority for most Americans.

According to the survey, which was conducted on July 15 and 16 among 1,500 eligible voters, the economy remains, by far, the most important issue, with 60 percent indicating as much — and at a time when gas prices are rising again, food prices remain high, interest rates have skyrocketed leading to far higher mortgage and auto loan costs, and a growing percentage of Americans have seen their buying power decrease under President Biden.

“Most voters—48 percent—said they were worse off now than they were three years ago. A further 29 percent said they were better off and 22 percent said they were about the same,” Newsweek reported, citing its survey results. “Forty-four percent said their financial situation has worsened in the last year, compared to 28 percent who said it had improved and another 28 percent who said it had stayed the same.”

According to a recent survey, healthcare was found to be the most important issue for 33% of respondents, followed by immigration (28%) and policing/crime (24%). While these three topics ranked highest in importance among those surveyed, two issues that are often considered top priorities for Democrats were further down on the list.

“Abortion and the environment were tied at 21 percent,” Newsweek noted, citing its survey.

Philip van Scheltinga, Director of Research at Redfield & Wilton Strategies, noted that the survey they conducted as part of a new partnership with Newsweek revealed nuances in public opinion which do not necessarily reflect Democratic cultural and social priorities.

“For instance, 62 percent of Americans say they are proud, rather than ashamed, of their country’s history, and 70 percent believe children in schools should be taught to feel proud of their country,” he said.

“At the same time, 57 percent think institutional racism still exists in the United States. These figures indicate a far more complex public opinion landscape than the bipolar one we may be led to believe otherwise exists,” he went on.

“Likewise, we see pluralities saying children should be taught about same-sex couples, but a majority saying children should not be taught that it is possible to change one’s gender, again indicating the public’s tendency not to perceive issues (in this instance, LGBT issues) in the unified, box-like fashion that political activists would perhaps like them to,” he noted further.

A survey conducted by Newsweek has revealed widespread dissatisfaction with the Biden Administration’s lax immigration policies.

Since reversing nearly all of former President Donald Trump’s stringent enforcement directives, illegal crossings and drug smuggling have both seen drastic increases.

According to the poll, 28 percent of respondents said they were very dissatisfied and 22 percent said they were dissatisfied with the U.S government’s approach to illegal immigration.

This lack of approval could prove costly for both Biden and his party in upcoming elections.

Recent survey results demonstrate the public’s dissatisfaction with the U.S. government’s approach to immigration issues, with only 8% of respondents stating that they were “very satisfied”.

Furthermore, an overwhelming majority (62%) indicated that they believed the United States did not have control over their borders, while just 25% stated that it did.

This lack of confidence in the current administration’s policy suggests that the Democratic left’s ‘soft-on-crime’ stance is not resonating with voters.

ICYMI: Rep. Matt Gaetz Introducing ‘National Prayer in School Act’ to Defend Religious Freedom