How 'nihilist' House Republicans 'castrated their own power': analysis

23 April 2024

After winning back the majority in the House of Representatives following the 2022 midterms, the GOP appeared to be positioned well to pass conservative legislation and build momentum toward making further gains in 2024. Instead, the GOP has been its own worst enemy since the 118th Congress gaveled in.

That's according to a new Axios analysis published Tuesday. Authors Juliegrace Brufke and Justin Green wrote that since winning the House with a razor-thin majority, Republicans "blew years of potential authority by weak leaders surrendering to keep power."

"Never before has the party in control of the House of Representatives knowingly and willingly castrated its own power so thoroughly as today's Republicans," Brufke and Green wrote.

One unnamed former member of Republican leadership told Axios that the beginning of the end for the House GOP was when they surrendered control of the House Rules Committee to its far-right faction, and when they allowed for a single member to introduce a motion to vacate a sitting House speaker, whereas previously it required a unified vote from a party's "caucus or conference."

"The structural changes they made, made the place ungovernable," the former GOP representative said. "When you give this many nihilists ... this kind of leverage, this is what's going to happen and it was just a matter of time."

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) only managed to win the gavel after 15 separate ballots in January of 2023, and had to agree to the rule change on lowering the motion to vacate threshold — which Democrats put in place while Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) was speaker — in order to win over enough votes. That turned out to be his undoing when Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) and seven other Republicans spearheaded an effort to oust him via a motion to vacate, which all Democrats also supported.

Additionally, Axios attributed the dysfunction in the House Republican Conference to "hardliners" like Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) sitting on the Rules Committee. This has led to multiple bills failing before even coming to the floor, as a rules package typically needs to be passed first before any actual legislation comes up for a vote by the full House.

"By not voting for rules, it forces suspension votes that are by definition more bipartisan," an unnamed House GOP moderate told Axios. "They are creating what they profess to hate."

Brufke and Green noted that former House Speakers John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) never once lost a rules vote, nor did Pelosi lose one during her speakership. However, both McCarthy and current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) have lost numerous rules votes when they held the gavel.

"A party unable to bring its agenda to the floor for a vote is no longer a functional majority," wrote former Boehner and Ryan staffer Brendan Buck in a recent op-ed.

Click here to read Axios' full report.

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