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Kevin McCarthy Just Announced He Won't Take Over as Speaker of the House

The surprise decision leaves Republicans without an obvious choice to replace John Boehner at the end of the month.

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Kevin McCarthy, the majority leader and representative from California widely considered the obvious choice as the next Republican House Speaker, has just taken himself out of the race. The surprise move, which was reported Thursday by the New York Times, leaves the party without an obvious choice to replace current House Speaker John Boehner, who recently announced that he would step down at the end of October.

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McCarthy's decision to take himself out of the race comes at amid growing divisions between House Republican leaders and the fringier members of the party's rank-and-file. The tensions have come to a head recently with the House's heated battle over Planned Parenthood funding. As the Times notes, it seems as if McCarthy has fallen victim to the same party infighting.

"Over the last week, it has become clear to me that our conference is deeply divided and needs to unite behind one leader," McCarthy said in a statement. He told reporters Thursday that he now believes he's not that guy.

Attention is now on Daniel Webster, a relatively unknown Florida congressman who has said he wants to make it easier for Republicans to bring legislation to the floor and challenge Senate Democrats. On Wednesday night, just hours before McCarthy's announcement, forty conservative House members pledged to support Webster's bid for Speaker.

But it's unclear that Webster—or anyone else—will be able to secure the 218 votes necessary to win the leadership race. And a deadlocked vote could lead to catastrophe—if Congress can't convene to pass a spending bill on December 11, the government will shut down.

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