--- title: Kevin McCarthy Drops Out of Race for House Speaker description: The race to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner has been upended, as the most likely successor has dropped out canonical: https://time.com/4066793/kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-drops/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-08T16:31:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:38:52.889Z article:section: Politics og:title: Kevin McCarthy Drops Out of Race for House Speaker og:description: He said he did not think he could unify Congress og:url: https://time.com/4066793/kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-drops/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c8a1a5e4f248a56/6988677c428a9e68deccf89a/kevin-mccarthy1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Kevin McCarthy, Judy McCarthy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kevin McCarthy Drops Out of Race for House Speaker twitter:description: He said he did not think he could unify Congress twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c8a1a5e4f248a56/6988677c428a9e68deccf89a/kevin-mccarthy1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kevin McCarthy Drops Out of Race for House Speaker by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Oct 8, 2015 4:31 PM UTC  House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., center, turns to his wife Judy McCarthy as they enter a House Republican caucus vote on its nominee to replace House Speaker John Boehner, in Washington D.D., Oct. 8, 2015. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., center, turns to his wife Judy McCarthy as they enter a House Republican caucus vote on its nominee to replace House Speaker John Boehner, in Washington D.D., Oct. 8, 2015.Jacquelyn Martin—AP by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Oct 8, 2015 4:31 PM UTC The race to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner has been upended, as the most likely successor has dropped out, according to social media posts from House Republicans. California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who had been under fire for the last week for comments on the Benghazi investigation, apparently ended his candidacy, causing the election to be postponed. When Boehner announced that he would not continue as Speaker last month, the handoff to McCarthy, the current House Majority Leader, was supposed to be calm and orderly. **Read More:** [**New Fight Over House Speaker Exposes Power of Conservative GOP Rebels**](http://time.com/4060782/house-speaker-jason-republican-chaffetz-kevin-mccarthy/) But McCarthy mishandled a Fox News interview, stating that the House committee to investigate the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, was helping drive down Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers—a gaffe that gave the Democrat’s campaign a huge gift. > [](https://twitter.com/RepHuizenga/status/652158576429895680) He faced challenges from conservative Reps. Daniel Webster of Florida and Jason Chaffetz of Utah that, while longshots, made it difficult for him to win the speakership easily. **Read More:** [**Why the House Speaker Fight Is Poised for Chaos**](http://time.com/4065499/house-speaker-kevin-mccarthy-fight/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4066793/kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-drops/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4066793/kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-drops/"},"headline":"Kevin McCarthy Drops Out of Race for House Speaker","datePublished":"2015-10-08T16:31:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:38:52.889Z","description":"He was the most likely successor for the position","url":"https://time.com/4066793/kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-drops/","keywords":["Congress"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c8a1a5e4f248a56/6988677c428a9e68deccf89a/kevin-mccarthy1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c8a1a5e4f248a56/6988677c428a9e68deccf89a/kevin-mccarthy1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Kevin McCarthy, Judy McCarthy","caption":"Kevin McCarthy, Judy McCarthy","creditText":"Jacquelyn Martin—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4066793/kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-drops/","name":"Kevin McCarthy Drops Out of Race for House Speaker"}}]}] ```