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Pa.’s Scott Perry emerges as key voice against Kevin McCarthy’s speaker bid

Perry has gained new prominence as leader of the hard-right Freedom Caucus and a close ally of former President Donald Trump,

U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.) speaks with journalists as he walks to a House Republican leadership on Nov. 15 on Capitol Hill in Washington.
U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.) speaks with journalists as he walks to a House Republican leadership on Nov. 15 on Capitol Hill in Washington.Read morePatrick Semansky / AP

WASHINGTON — Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.) emerged as a leading roadblock Tuesday preventing Kevin McCarthy from his path to becoming House speaker, throwing deep uncertainty over the GOP’s first day back in charge of the House, and its prospects for governing going forward.

Perry, of York County, leads the House’s hard-right Freedom Caucus and was one of 19 Republicans who defied McCarthy in three afternoon votes (a 20th Republican joined them in the third round), leading the House to adjourn without choosing a leader or doing any other business that would start the work of the new Congress. The logjam prevented newly elected House members from taking their oaths of office Tuesday, including Reps.-elect Summer Lee and Chris Deluzio, both Western Pennsylvania Democrats.

Perry has pushed for concessions that he says McCarthy is unwilling to make, though critics from within the GOP say he and other holdouts simply disdain McCarthy and won’t be satisfied with any agreement. With Republicans holding only a narrow majority in the House, defiance from Perry and others endangered McCarthy’s push to become the speaker, and illustrates the power that just a handful of recalcitrant GOP lawmakers will have to slow or stop House business in the new Congress.

Perry was the only Republican from Pennsylvania or New Jersey to oppose McCarthy in the votes for House speaker Tuesday afternoon, contributing to a GOP stalemate that left the House frozen on the first day of the new Congress. Perry instead supported Rep. Andy Biggs (R., Ariz.) and then Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) for speaker, but no one could win a majority.

The vote marked the first time in 100 years that a potential speaker failed to win enough votes on the first try, and set off a new round of wrangling as Republicans struggle for unity and direction.

Perry showed no sign of flinching.

“I stand firmly committed to changing the status quo no matter how many ballots this takes,” he tweeted. “If @GOPLeader McCarthy had fought nearly as hard to defeat the failed, toxic policies of the @POTUS Biden Administration as he has for himself, he would be Speaker of the House right now.”

Perry has been a longtime lightning rod for controversy and conspiracies but has gained new prominence in recent years as a close ally of former President Donald Trump and a leader in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election result. He has also added new power as head of the Freedom Caucus, a right-wing group of Republicans that has often been at odds with GOP leadership.

Democrats delighted in the Republican fractures.

”House Democrats are united. We are ready to get to work #ForThePeople,” tweeted Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.). “Lowering costs for working families is my top priority. But House Republican led chaos & infighting means they can’t get their act together to address inflation.”

Earlier, Perry had released a statement discussing McCarthy’s speaker bid in the past tense.

“Kevin McCarthy had an opportunity to be Speaker of the House,” Perry wrote. “He rejected it.”

After a morning meeting of House Republicans, Perry joined Reps. Lauren Boebert (R., Colo.) and Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) in a news conference blasting McCarthy and fellow Republicans, saying they were trying to strong-arm opponents.

“This meeting wasn’t about trying to inform people about what it takes to get to 218 [votes] and ask what they want,” Perry told reporters after the closed-door meeting. ”This was about a beat down and a simulated unity in the room which really doesn’t exist.”

Perry and other McCarthy critics accused GOP leaders of threatening to take away committee posts for members who oppose McCarthy.

“We literally have people in there telling us to take orders,” Perry said. “I don’t take orders from anyone in this town. My orders come from my district and my constituents.”

He said Republicans opposed to McCarthy are asking for, among other things, a balanced budget, a tougher border plan, term limits for House members, and individual votes on spending “earmarks” that go to lawmakers’ pet projects.

But other reports indicate they are also seeking more power to oust the speaker, and additional authority such as their own legal entity for their own lawsuits.

» READ MORE: Controversial Pa. Republican Scott Perry is about to lead Congress’ most far-right faction

McCarthy, speaking to reporters in the Capitol shortly after Perry did, accused the Republican holdouts of putting their own demands ahead of the caucus.

“We’re not empowering certain members over others,” he said, saying that his critics were demanding certain positions and committee chair posts. ”I will always fight to put the American people first, not a few individuals that want something for themselves. So we may have a battle on the floor, but the battle is for the conference and the country, and that’s fine with me.”

McCarthy won the support of the vast majority of House Republicans but needs a majority of all House votes to win the speaker’s gavel. That means that only a handful of GOP defections can block him. He has long had a fraught relationship with his party’s right wing, which questions his commitment to their beliefs after years in which McCarthy contorted himself to fit the political winds of the moment.

He got fewer votes for speaker Tuesday than Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), even though Democrats have fewer overall members.

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R., Pa.) was among those expressing support for McCarthy.

“I’ve never been more confident that Kevin is gonna get the gavel,” Reschenthaler said after the GOP’s morning meeting, but before the afternoon votes.

He said his message for people still opposing McCarthy is, “At the end of the day, Kevin’s going to win, so it would be best to get on the winning side.”