As Speaker Kevin McCarthy continues to lead the House successfully, I often get asked how his speakership is similar to my own—and what I think he should do to keep building his success.
Fortunately, this is exactly the topic of my new book, “March to the Majority.” When my long-time friend and advisor Joe Gaylord and I started writing the book, Republicans had not yet reclaimed the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. But Gaylord and I had a feeling that they would—and that they could help lead America out of the mess the Biden administration was creating.
We decided to write “March to the Majority“ as a history of our success in building the first GOP House majority in 40 years—and as a playbook Republicans could use today to create a better American future.
Remember, when I first got elected to the House in 1978, Republicans had been in the minority for 24 years. They’d lost all hope. It took nearly two decades to become the majority. That’s why we talk about it as a “March to the Majority.” It wasn’t a leap, a jump, or a sprint. It was a long, deliberate march. For 16 years, we reached out to and learned from our fellow citizens. We learned from them about cutting taxes and regulations to create jobs. We learned from them the positive potential of work being the No. 1 social policy. Connecting with Americans was key to our success.
This idea of using past lessons to improve the future also came straight out of our own experience. A great deal of our success in the 1994 Republican Revolution came from applying things we learned many years earlier from President Ronald Reagan.
Reagan had instilled in us an idealism, an optimism, and a sense of getting positive things done that helped us engage and excite the American people. It wasn’t that we convinced the American people to suddenly like Republicans. We as Republicans realized that the American people wanted positive ideas and solutions, so we worked hard to create them.
The “Contract With America” was the product of this realization. It wasn’t a partisan document. It was an American document. Most Americans wanted to replace welfare with work. They believed that you could cut taxes to create jobs—and that a better future was possible.
So that’s what we did. We passed the largest capital gains tax cut in history. We passed welfare reform, and we ultimately created four balanced federal budgets. People went back to work by the millions. Children suddenly found that their parents were working, and incomes were going up. It was the most successful program for lifting children out of poverty in American history.
“March to the Majority“ is also useful today, because we describe the four years I spent negotiating with Democrat President Bill Clinton to get all these positive things done—even with divided government.
This is why 1994 matters in 2024. I hope every citizen will read “March to the Majority“ and be inspired to believe that America’s best days are ahead of us—not behind us. We can solve our problems. We can get back to an America that’s more prosperous, secure, and brimming with real opportunities for all Americans.
We’ve done it before. We can do it again.
