Kevin McCarthy Endorses Donald Trump for 2024 Presidency

(Left) Former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times) ; (Right) Former president Donald Trump. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R- Calif.) endorsed former President Donald Trump for the 2024 elections and suggested that he would be open to a position in the Trump cabinet.

When asked in a CBS interview to be published on Dec. 10 whether President Trump will be the presidential nominee for the GOP, Mr. McCarthy replied, “Yes. In the Republican Party? Yes. And if Biden stays as the nominee for the Democrats, I believe Donald Trump will win, I believe the Republicans will gain more seats in the House, and the Republicans will win the Senate.” He also agreed that he would support President Trump in the elections, admitting it as an endorsement.

As to whether he would be willing to serve in the Trump cabinet, Mr. McCarthy replied, “In the right position. Look, if I’m the best person for the job, yes. Look, I worked with President Trump on a lot of policies. We worked together to win the majority. But we also have a relationship where we’re very honest with one another.”

Mr. McCarthy is the latest GOP member to have openly endorsed President Trump for the 2024 elections.

Earlier this week, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) declared her backing for the former president. In an op-ed published in Yellowhammer News, she described President Trump as someone who can “achieve peace through strength.”

“These past three years have felt like an eternity, but I’m sure you recall how much better off we were under the Trump Administration,” she wrote while pointing to the lower cost of everyday commodities like eggs, milk, and gasoline under the former president.

Last month, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) announced his endorsement, saying that President Trump would “put our country back on track on day one.”

In a recent interview with CNBC, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also backed President Trump. “I expect he’ll be our nominee, and we have to make Biden a one-term president.”

According to data from Ballotpedia, President Trump has so far garnered 137 endorsements from GOP members as of Dec. 8. This includes endorsements from 85 House representatives, 16 senators, and seven governors.

Second-place GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has only received 5 endorsements from the House, zero from the Senate, and the support of two governors.

Trump Versus Biden

A Dec. 5 poll update from Morning Consult states that “Biden and Trump, the likeliest Republican presidential nominee for 2024, are knotted up at 43 percent a piece in our latest national tracking survey. That’s compared with Biden’s 1-percentage-point lead from our last weekly update.”

President Trump has a three percentage point lead over President Biden among Independents. While 88 percent of voters who voted for President Trump in 2020 said they would back him again in 2024, this number was slightly lower for President Biden, with only 83 percent of his 2020 voters backing him for the 2024 race.

“Biden’s lead over Trump has declined over time, especially since the summer as the Republican presidential primary has heated up,” Morning Consult said.

“Biden has also seen his popularity edge over Trump wane since the GOP’s nominating contest picked up steam several months ago. Trump is now slightly more popular than Biden.”

According to Galen Druke, host and producer of the “FiveThirtyEight Politics” podcast, President Trump is gaining ground among minority voters.

Polling suggests that more black and Hispanic voters are supporting the former president, Mr. Druke said during a recent conference.

A November poll from New York Times/Siena College showed President Trump having 43 percent support among Hispanics in six battleground states, which is 14 points higher compared to 2016. Among black voters, he had 22 percent support.

“We’ve seen in polling so far—you’ve probably seen headlines about it—that for a Democrat, Joe Biden receives a historically diminished level of support from voters of color, mainly black voters and Latino voters,” he said.

McCarthy and Trump

Mr. McCarthy’s interview with CBS comes a few days after he announced his decision to leave Congress by the end of the year.

In a commentary at the Wall Street Journal announcing his exit, Mr. McCarthy wrote that after his departure from Congress, he intends to “serve America in new ways.”

“I will continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office. The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders.”

Mr. McCarthy has been a close supporter of President Trump. When the former president raised charges of the 2020 presidential elections being stolen, Mr. McCarthy backed him.

However, a rift emerged between the two after the Jan. 6 breach, with the Congressman insisting on the House floor that President Trump “bears responsibility” for the incident while criticizing him for not attempting to call off the mob.

A few weeks after Jan. 6, relations warmed as Mr. McCarthy visited President Trump at the latter’s Mar-a-Lago residence and claimed that the former president did not “provoke” the mob attack that day.

In October, he became the first House Speaker in American history to be removed from the chamber. He held the speaker’s gavel for roughly nine months.