Internal Strife Within the GOP and the Effects on the Party’s Political Influence

Graphics by Taylor Whirley

“I’ll be really candid. I think if we had stayed together in the meeting last night, I think that you would have seen fists thrown, and I’m not being dramatic when I say that.” 

This statement came from Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) earlier this month, following the Congressional vote to oust former Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Graves’ assertion that the Republican wing of the House would have surely devolved into a physical altercation is not necessarily surprising as shown by the mounting strife within the party. Although the House Republicans have recently decided on Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) to succeed McCarthy and end the legislative paralysis, this does not negate the fervent friction between conflicting sects within the GOP. This piece seeks to explore the intensifying infighting among members of the Republican Party in Congress, the tumultuous effects it has had on the party’s political influence as a whole, and what it could mean for the future of the party. 

The modern-day Republican Party is subdivided into several sects, varying in ideology, voting record, and motivation. The self-titled “Five Families” of the Republican party are composed of the moderates, the conservative establishment, the far-right wing, the Tea Party, and the pro-Trump insurgents. Although there is notable overlap between some of these groups, it is certainly worth distinguishing between these markedly different factions. These five subgroups have experienced significant contention with one another over the years, which has largely contributed to the issues surrounding the election of former Speaker McCarthy and his now unprecedented ousting. 

The moderate wing of the party is generally aligned with groups like the Problem Solvers Caucus and the Main Street Caucus, which are the more mainstream, bipartisan committees within the GOP. This faction includes members like Rep. David Joyce (R-OH), Rep. Young Kim (R-CA), and Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD). These representatives generally side with the GOP in terms of conventional issues, but they will also find common ground and compromise with the Democrats when necessary. Julia Azari, a political science professor at Marquette University, states that members of this group are “increasingly becoming an incredibly endangered species,” indicating the rate at which this group is shrinking within a growingly radicalized Republican party. 

The conservative faction within the GOP are part of the establishment Republican party, and they boast consistently traditional voting records associated with conservatism. This group includes members like Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Tom Emmer (R-MN), and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who are often part of organizations such as the Republican Study Committee and the Republican Governance Group. Establishment conservatives essentially straddle the line between the moderate and the pro-Trump wings of the GOP. A significant number of the Republican leadership are establishment conservatives, and while they do clearly champion some sort of loyalty to former President Trump, this group still prefers to identify themselves as those with the GOP’s best interests at heart. This group is less likely than the moderate wing, for example, to speak out against their peers on the right. However, McCarthy certainly has not been afraid to denounce those who aided in removing him from the Speakership: “They don’t get to say they’re conservative because they’re angry and they’re chaotic, that’s not the party I belong to. The party of Reagan was if you believed in your principles, that you could govern in a conservative way. They are not conservative and do not have the right to the title.” This is a fitting description of the conservative wing of the party and its motivations and attitudes. 

The Tea Party is an extremely traditionalist, staunchly conservative faction, featuring members like Jim Jordan (R-OH), Byron Donalds (R-FL), and Chip Roy (R-TX), among others. These representatives are associated with far-right conservative groups, like the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity. Although Tea Party politicians are often members of the Freedom Caucus within Congress, the distinction of Tea Party members lies in the fact that they are driven by ideology, as opposed to grievance, which motivates most of the Freedom Caucus. Members of the Tea party usually support Trump, but their loyalties are not tied to this specific leader. In brief, there are three principles which guide the Tea Party: limited government, unapologetic U.S. sovereignty, and constitutional originalism. 

The far-right sect of the modern Republican party largely agrees with the Freedom Caucus and/or Tea Party in ideological contexts, but they are much less disruptive. Members of the far-right faction include Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Speaker pro tempore Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC). Many consider the far-right GOP wing to be the “glue that holds the Freedom Caucus and the conservative establishment together.” In the sense that they are less vocal than the pro-Trump insurgents of the GOP, some of them, including the two aforementioned representatives, have quietly aligned themselves with more mainstream Republicans in certain votes. For example, McHenry actually voted to certify the 2020 election results, a position which is in direct conflict with the beliefs of many Tea Party and Freedom Caucus members. 

The firebrands of the party identify as the pro-Trump insurgents, the MAGA wing, the Freedom Caucus – the list goes on. These proponents of chaos and dissent are aligned with the de facto leader of the Republican party, former President Donald Trump. This is certainly the loudest faction within the GOP, and they largely comprise the House Freedom Caucus (with the exception of Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was removed from the caucus in 2021). Prominent members of this wing of the party include Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Chip Roy (R-TX). This faction has the ability to create problems within the narrow House majority, as evidenced by Gaetz leading the vote to oust McCarthy. As previously mentioned, members of this group are not motivated by ideology, but rather by grievance, as they are not concerned with appearing unserious by the greater Republican party and their voting bloc. Many political analysts believe that wing of the party to be damaging to the Republicans’ image, as summarized by Julie Azari: “It’s not to Republicans’ benefit for them to be at the forefront of the party. They are really not super popular figures with the broader population.”

In order to understand the current infighting which is debilitating Congress Republicans, we must return to the election of McCarthy to the position of Speaker of the House in January 2023 after a historic 15 rounds of voting. The list of holdouts who did not support McCarthy at the onset of the voting has significant overlap with the names of the Freedom Caucus. Matt Gaetz (who eventually initiated the ousting of McCarthy in October) led the charge in precluding McCarthy’s election to Speaker, and he was accompanied by peers such as Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Chip Roy (R-TX), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Dan Bishop (R-NC), and Scott Perry (R-PA). By the ninth round of voting, McCarthy had lost several significant votes, but this trend reversed the following morning when the tenth round of voting resumed and he had won back the support of several previous detractors. During the 14th ballot, McCarthy believed that he had secured enough support to win, but Rep. Gaetz denied McCarthy the victory in a sensational display by voting “present” at the end of roll call. Although the details of the subsequent conversation are largely unknown to the public, it is implied that McCarthy and Gaetz cut a deal in which the six holdouts – Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Boebert, Eli Crane (R-AZ), Gaetz, Bob Good (R-VA), and Matt Rosendale (R-MT) – were all able to still withhold their votes while allowing McCarthy to emerge victorious. The deal which McCarthy made in order to become Speaker enforced important concessions, including appointing members of the Freedom Caucus to important Congressional committees, such as the Committee on Rules; provisions making it easier to block spending and tax increases; guaranteeing a vote on congressional term limits; and the provision that only one representative has to call a vote to oust the Speaker. The latter of this list is what resulted in McCarthy’s October 2, 2023 removal. 

GOP reactions have varied greatly as a result of McCarthy’s ousting. Rep. Graves’ statement provides a chilling synopsis of the wrath and exasperation brewing among Congressional Republicans. Although Republicans have since unanimously elected Rep. Mike Johnson to the position of Speaker, the current state of the GOP begets a discussion surrounding the attitudes and opinions of the House and Senate Republicans throughout this unstable turmoil. House Republicans seemed to turn against each other as they struggled to back a new GOP leader, as the party’s nomination shifted from Steve Scalise to Jim Jordan. One Senior Republican House member was anonymously quoted saying, “We can’t reward this behavior… We can’t let a small group be dictators” in reference to blocking the desires of the relatively small number of hardliners who ousted McCarthy. Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) further voiced his frustration, responding to a reporter’s question of “How does this make[Republicans] look?” with “It makes us look like a bunch of idiots.” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) echoed Scott’s concerns, remarking, “This is petty and I’m getting freaking tired of it.” Dusty Johnson, a leader of the Problem Solvers Caucus, even stated “People are looking for a perfect system. They shouldn’t be looking at the U.S. House right now.” This handful of Republican opinions are representative of a larger portion of the party who are intensely frustrated with the state of the party. 

The eight GOP members who sided with Democrats to oust McCarthy included 5 of the same 6 members who withheld their votes from McCarthy during the 15th and final ballot in January (save Boebert), in addition to Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). Kevin McCarthy held a press conference hours after his removal, during which he blamed the Democrats for his ousting. The Democrats are receiving misplaced blame from GOP members who believed that it was the Democrats’ place to rescue McCarthy. McCarthy promoted this talking point for the entirety of October, citing the Democrats as responsible for the “mess” in Congress after GOP members failed to elect Jordan as the new speaker and parroting it once again the following day, saying “The Democrats made a political decision to try to bring chaos to shut down a branch of government. And that’s wrong.” The hardliner members of the GOP, led by Gaetz, initiated McCarthy’s removal–not the Democrats. In fact, the Republicans have the House majority and although they are clearly unable to wield this authority, they would nonetheless have had the power to prevent McCarthy’s ousting if they were a united party. This GOP talking point is also evidently impairing governance. A YouGov poll, taken between October 14-17, indicated that “most Americans (including Democrats and Republicans) believe that the lack of a speaker hurts the ability of the government to function.” Congress is certainly held to a low standard by most Americans, but Congressional Republicans are viewed particularly poorly; a third of Americans sampled in the YouGov poll view Republicans in Congress in a favorable way, as opposed to four in ten Americans viewing Democrats that way. The study also reveals, “nine in 10 Democrats view their own party’s congressional delegation favorably. Only two-thirds of Republicans view theirs so generously.” Republican voters are clearly losing trust in their party’s capacity to responsibly govern, and this must be taken into account. 

Evidently, Congress’s GOP has landed on a candidate they deemed acceptable. Mike Johnson, a representative from Louisiana, was unanimously elected to the position of Speaker despite being a relatively unknown character within the party. Although Johnson was unanimously elected, this certainly does not mean that the Republican party is now unified in any manner. It is evident that voters, both Republican and Democrat, do not have faith currently in the ability of the Republican party to govern. According to the YouGov poll, 51% of voters believe that Democrats are currently more united than Republicans; conversely, only 15% of voters believe Republicans are more united than Democrats. In order to shore up public support and move forward in a way to ensure continued control in the House, the Republicans must make a change. I would echo Julie Azari’s comments in regards to the Freedom Caucus – the members of this wing of the GOP are dangerous and should not be promoted within the party as leaders. If the chaos within the House this past October taught us anything, it is that more bipartisan work needs to be done. McCarthy, along with a slew of other Republicans, have relentlessly placed the blame upon Democrats for this mess when they should be looking inward. They have claimed time and time again that the Democrats had the ability to fix this, but the idea that the Republicans deserve the aid or concern of Democrats to reach across the aisle to help them is absurd considering the manner in which the Republicans continue to denigrate their ideological opponents. In order to gain back the approval of their voting bloc, the Republicans must reconsider their demonization of Democrats and realize how desperately they do in fact need their bipartisan support. 

Republicans should value and prioritize bipartisan work with Democrats in order to communicate to their constituents their ability to efficiently cooperate with the other side. There are Republicans in Congress who promote bipartisan work, like Dusty Johnson or Rep. Jim Costa (R-CA), who are both members of the Problem Solvers Caucus. A bipartisan committee would be an extremely effective tool for the Republicans to implement at this point in time. Although this would be a practical solution, it would likely be met with significant resistance from some of the powerful hardliners within the GOP. In the case that this is not a possibility for Republicans, I believe that they should stand behind a leader who is, if not further towards the center of the political spectrum, at the very least, appreciative and cognizant of their House counterparts. A representative like Mike Johnson is not only dangerous, ideologically speaking, but in the partisan sense, as well. The bottom line of the Republicans’ problem with public distrust and lack of certainty can be resolved if they put forth an earnest attempt to exhibit bipartisan endeavors, whether it be in the form of a distinct party leader or new caucuses or committees.