Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) affiliated political action groups spent millions of dollars supporting Republican candidates in the last election cycle, including some of those who voted to oust him from the speakership.
Despite McCarthy's opposing colleagues claiming he was “working for the Democrats,” the former House Speaker raised more $60 million for House Republicans in the first two quarters of 2023, even more than he raised in the first half of 2022 ahead of the midterm elections.
During the last election cycle, McCarthy-aligned PACs spent up to $100,000 in the fight to elect the eight members who opposed him.
“A lot of them I helped get elected, so I probably should have picked someone else,” McCarthy told the National Review on Tuesday, just three days shy of hitting his nine-month mark as House Speaker.
Campaign finance records reveal that McCarthy’s Majority Committee, his affiliated leadership PAC, donated to five of the eight Republicans who voted to remove him from his position.
Per the National Review,
The Majority Committee, McCarthy’s affiliated leadership PAC, contributed to the campaigns of five of the eight Republicans who voted against him. The Majority Committee contributed $10,000 each to the campaigns of Matt Rosendale (R., Mont.), Nancy Mace (R., SC.), and Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.) last election cycle, according to campaign finance records, and gave $5,000 each to Eli Crane (R., Ariz.) and Bob Good (R., Va.)’s campaigns. The Majority Committee also contributed $10,000 each to Victoria Spartz (R., Ind.) Warren Davidson (R., Oh.), who were in favor of voting to vacate McCarthy.
In addition, another McCarthy-affiliated PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, gave $5,000 to Mace’s campaign and $10,000 to Crane’s in 2022.
The PAC also spent over $900,000 on advertisements to support Crane during an Arizona battleground race. Meanwhile, earlier this year, the McCarthy-backed committee spent over $1 million supporting Spartz’s 2020 campaign.
On the contrary, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)— who brought the motion to vacate McCarthy from the speakership— has not received contributions from McCarthy-aligned PACs.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) also did not benefit financially from McCarthy PACs. They coincidentally also voted in favor of booting the Republican from his position.