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STUNNER: FRONT-RUNNER TO REPLACE BOEHNER PULLS OUT OF SPEAKER RACE

kevin mccarthy
kevin mccarthy

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., pauses as he speaks about foreign policy during the John Hay Initiative, Monday, Sept. 28,2015, at a hotel in Washington.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the front-runner to succeed John Boehner as the next speaker, suddenly pulled out of the race on Thursday, a development that collectively stunned Washington.

McCarthy made the announcement at a House Republican caucus meeting in which he was largely expected to win the GOP nomination for speaker.

Leadership elections have been postponed indefinitely, throwing the House Republican caucus into chaos on the eve of looming deadlines and cliffs.

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Even McCarthy's fellow Republican lawmakers seemed completely shocked. At 8 a.m., they said, he made his pitch and urged his colleagues to vote for him as speaker. By 12:15 p.m. in Washington, he was dropping out of the race.

"The room was stunned as McCarthy announced he is 'not the right one' to lead the conference. At 8am he was at a forum making his pitch," tweeted Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Michigan).

"Kevin McCarthy withdrew from the race," Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pennsylvania) said in a CNN interview, explaining that McCarthy didn't think he could unify the conference.

The new developments could potentially throw the House into more potential chaotic uncertainty with two key deadlines looming: The federal Highway Trust Fund, which funds numerous construction projects across the country, is set to lapse on October 29. And the Treasury Department told Congress last week that Congress needs to raise the nation's debt ceiling by November 5 to avoid a potential default on its obligations.

McCarthy was seen as likely to earn the Republican nomination for speaker on Thursday, despite a tumultuous past week that found him taking fire from both sides of the political aisle.

McCarthy was facing off against Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the chair of the powerful House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Florida), the upstart candidate preferred by an influential group of House conservatives.

McCarthy had come under fire by both Democrats and members of his own party after he suggested in an interview that the House's select committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi had helped bring down former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's poll numbers.

Clinton is now the Democratic front-runner for president, and she and her team have long charged the committee's investigation was a partisan attempt to bring down her candidacy.

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-South Carolina), a prominent member of the so-called House Freedom Caucus, told CNN that McCarthy may have withdrawn because of those comments.

John Boehner Kevin McCarthy
John Boehner Kevin McCarthy

(AP)
John Boehner (background) and Kevin McCarthy.

McCarthy suffered another blow on Wednesday, when the influential 40-plus member "House Freedom Caucus" — the group of hard-line conservatives that frequently bucked Boehner in key votes — said it would endorse Webster for speaker.

Chaffetz has said he'll support the nominee that comes out of Thursday's vote. But members of the Freedom Caucus are less predictable. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the group's leader, said in a statement that the group has "every intention of voting together tomorrow and on the House floor."

"We're very shocked," Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas), a member of the Freedom Caucus, said after the vote. "Kevin certainly didn't have 218 votes on the floor."

It meant that McCarthy would have likely received a majority of Republican votes to become the caucus' nominee for speaker on Thursday. But he needed 218 votes to become speaker on October 29, when the full House was scheduled to vote. If even 30 of the House Freedom Caucus members stuck with their plan, they could have blocked him from becoming speaker or forced him to a multiple-ballot situation.

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