McCarthy Asks Senate Republicans to Trust Him in House Speaker Role

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told Senate Republicans at a luncheon on Dec. 21 that they should have faith in him to lead the House Republican majority in the next Congress, according to The Hill.
“It was a unifying message, he talked about how we need to work better together than we have in the past,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) told reporters after the meeting.
However, one GOP senator said McCarthy “acknowledged it’s going to be hard” to run the lower chamber of Congress with only a slim five-seat majority, according to the outlet.
McCarthy’s meeting with GOP senators came at a time when he is facing challenges to secure the needed votes to become the next House speaker. With Republicans projected to hold a 222 to 212 majority when a floor vote takes place in January, he could only lose a few Republican votes to secure the 218 votes he needs to be elected speaker….}