And few of McCarthy’s benefactors have come to his defense.
Heidi Kasama, pictured, has “McCarthy's backing, the same guy who's let us down time and time again,” former Nevada state Sen. Elizabeth Helgelien, one of Kasama’s primary opponents, said Wednesday. | Tom R. Smedes/AP Photo
An endorsement from Kevin McCarthy was supposed to be a blessing for Republicans in competitive primaries next year.McCarthy’s ouster from the speakership is a sudden opening for primary contestants who have already gone on the attack against the frontrunners who earned his endorsement. “Voters don’t want a McCarthy Republican,” Joe Earley, who is running against a McCarthy-endorsed candidate in West Virginia, said in a statement to POLITICO. “They want a true conservative, and this situation has exposed how poor a job that McCarthy has done and that my opponent has refused to reject his endorsement.”McCarthy threw his weight around in competitive races early in the 2024 cycle, backing candidates for at least eight House seats: Tom Barrett in MI-07; state Rep.
All of these races — with the exception of the open primary in the deep red WV-02 — are on the NRCC’s target list. McCarthy is a prolific fundraiser and has an extensive political network that was poised to boost these candidates. It’s unlikely that will immediately crumble away just because he’s no longer House speaker. But some Republicans running for Congress see his firing as fodder to take down their opponents who earned his endorsement., one of Kasama’s primary opponents, said Wednesday.
NV-03 has been a top target for cycles, as Republicans attempt to unseat Democratic Rep. Susie Lee. McCarthy’s candidate of choice last year, April Becker, lost to Lee by around 4 points., was the first Republican to enter the race back in March. McCarthy endorsed Kasama shortly after she announced her bid in August. Both Helgelien and Drew Johnson, a conservative columnist also running for the seat, have sought to label Kasama as a “Republican in name only” or a “liberal.
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